“I got tired of sadness/ I got tired of all the madness/ I got tired of being a badass all the time,” sings Matthew Houck on “Revelator,” the opener and title track of the Phosphorescent album. Houck was actively seeking something new, a revelation, when the old ways and habits stopped working. Revelator came together quickly after the pandemic. Though the writing and recording took only six months, it wasn’t an easy process: Revelator forced Houck to confront his tendency toward self-doubt, which was amplified by his questions about what kind of album he was making. Revelator may promise a fresh perspective, a different horizon, but at its core, the album grapples with a persistent sense of dread.
