“Song for Zula,” the first single from Phosphorescent’s most recent and most excellent full-length, Muchacho, straddles the delicate balance between serene instrumentation and crippling lyrics. Gliding effortlessly on airy, pulsating synths, the track finds a barren man baring his soul in the name of (or against) love. Unsurprisingly, the results are staggering: “Song for Zula” has the ability to both uplift your soul and gut it clean in one swipe.
In a nod of respect, the song begins with a line stripped straight from the late Johnny Cash’s “Ring of Fire.” Yet Phosphorescent begs to differ with Cash’s idea of love: to Matthew Houck (Phosphorescent’s sole real member) love is a gripping, caging beast. And, like King Kong before him, he is not climbing back in — he’s tired of laying victim to love and being beaten down time after time. Unlike King Kong, however, Houck can sing; he doesn’t need to climb to the top of a tower to prove his point. Instead, he delivers a brutally truthful testament in his infamous cracked voice, allowing the words to gather more meaning than if you merely read them on a page.
“Song for Zula” meanders at its own pace for six minutes; like love, it transcends both time and space. It’s damn easy to get swept up in this dream world Houck’s created, and as heartbreaking as it is, I don’t ever want to wake up from it.