Rob Munk - Phased Out (Magic Door Label)

It is fair to say that the recent single “Amazon” impacted me a bit. When I put together my end-of-year playlist, I knew it had to be the opening song. It’s that good. It is. But one swallow does not make a summer, as they say, and one track isn’t a whole album. So the only question I had going into Phased Out was, would the other tracks accompanying it be of a similar standard? The short answer is …yes! The longer answer is…hell, yes! But as this is a review, I had better go into more detail than that.

Whilst the album is wholly original, it isn’t hard to see the traces of earlier, iconic acts in the tracks. And I’m not talking about plagiarism or plunder here, but rather that Rob Munk knows the key components and rules to songwriting and so shares traits and qualities that have added longevity to songs that we now regard as classics.

That he chose a track like “Heavy Shoes (To Kill The Blues)” as the opener shows the confidence with which he presents this album. It’s not that it isn’t a good song, nothing could be further from the truth, but there are more immediate and infectious songs which might have been the more obvious choice. The fact that he makes us wait for tracks such as the aforementioned “Amazon” or “Slumber” or even the wilfully louche and wonderfully lazy “Youth” speaks volumes.

But such tracks are well worth the wait. “The Ghosts of San Francisco” reminds us of the likes of The Lemonheads, part pop poise, part indie cool, all awesome, “Phased Out” feels like an old folk sing-a-long updated for the modern era and “Eyes of God” has a whistful and reflective Beatles quality to it.

Rob Munk has spoken about the fact that after years of playing in bands, he fell out of love with the process of songwriting, that he felt that he didn’t have anything else to give, at least nothing that met his benchmarks of quality control. It is safe to say that on the strength of Phased Out, he is back in action and certainly has nothing to worry about regarding the quality of the songs. Not quite an album made up of songs that could all be sent out into the world as singles in their own right…but certainly not far off it.

Spotify
Phased Out album teaser
Slumber
Youth
Amazon
Heavy Shoes