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Here's To Taking It Easy
by
Here's To Taking It Easy Image
Metascore
78

Generally favorable reviews - based on 25 Critic Reviews What's this?

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  • Summary: The Matthew Houck-led band returns with its first album of new material since 2007's Pride.

Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 21 out of 25
  2. Mixed: 4 out of 25
  3. Negative: 0 out of 25
  1. Absolute Punk (Staff reviews)
    89
    If you dig songs with twang, Here's to Taking It Easy is as tuneful and affecting a set of them as you're likely to come across.
  2. Pitchfork
    82
    Here's to Taking It Easy is a great record, but I feel like Houck's best is still in him-- the one where the deep roots of tradition will finally be inextricably fused with his own weird, shambling soul.
  3. musicOMH.com
    80
    It's a rootsy album that is delivered faithfully and respectfully, but one where the strong, clear voice of its author cuts through powerfully.
  4. Under The Radar
    80
    Houck can finally take it easy with the knowledge that he's made his best record. [Spring 2010, p.65]
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  5. Prefix Magazine
    75
    Here's to Taking It Easy is a fine debut of sorts for Phosphorescent as a band. To Willie was the preamble to this, the band's new direction. And good as Houck was as a singer-songwriter, "band leader" is a role that suits him just as well.
  6. The New York Times
    70
    Yet his voice still ambles all around the beat, and the production is calculatedly bleary, with horns, guitars and piano all entangled, as if two or three bands are playing the same song. Phosphorescent's perpetually woozy aesthetic is intact.
  7. The Boston Phoenix
    50
    Forsaking subtly Southern melancholy in favor of jangling, twanging hillbilly heartbreak, Here's to Taking It Easy misplaces amplified country fever instead of channeling it.

See all 25 Critic Reviews

User Reviews

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Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1 out of 1
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 1
  3. Negative: 0 out of 1
  1. Ricko
    Jan 3, 2018
    9
    This is a real pleasant listen. I guess it could be classed as Americana or Alternative Country and although I'm not a massive fan of eitherThis is a real pleasant listen. I guess it could be classed as Americana or Alternative Country and although I'm not a massive fan of either of those genres, I do really like this record. The lyrics are great, the tunes are excellent and it has a consistent feel to it throughout. The record creates a very specific type of atmosphere, one that really gives you a sense of a place and I could see myself listening to this while sitting on a back porch of a house somewhere in the American Deep South overlooking a swamp. That's probably not what Matthew Houck was going for with this record but that's what it is for me and I like it. It's hard to pick a stand out track as it's all high end stuff. "The Mermaid Parade" is probably my favourite track on this, closely followed by Los Angeles but "Here's To Taking It Easy" is one of those records best consumed whole in one sitting.… Collapse