From the first bars of Here’s To Taking It Easy, it’s easy to tell something happened to Matthew Houck over the past three years.

Maybe he misplaced it in the move from Athens, Ga. to Brooklyn, N.Y., maybe it was Willie Nelson, or maybe it’s the womb-like safety of his new neighborhood’s art-friendly vibe, but most of the sorrow on 2007’s Pride has been replaced with happiness, horns, shout-along choruses, and generally positive tunes about life on the road.

Houck, the mastermind behind Phosphorescent (whose touring outfit has grown to six members), makes his intentions known from the get go on album-opener “It’s Hard To Be Humble (When You’re From Alabama)”.

Over a pompous horn arrangement and bar room slide guitar, he spouts off confident lines like, “If you’re talking to me like that you best be quickly walking away/ I ain’t came to stand here for none of this bullshit/I came here to play.”

While the band plays well (“Los Angeles” is a sprawling, nine-minute, solo-laden jam), the album as a whole comes and goes without any significantly epic moments. Instead, the band seems content to settle into their nouveau-country groove.

“Heavin, Sittin’ Down” plays like a spirited genre-exercise with its alternating bass notes, and several songs on the album follow down a familiar, albeit well-executed, path. They’re well composed, well played, but lack punch. This is clearly a set that will slowly grow on listeners with repeated listens.

Still, the album’s oddball – “Hej, Me I’m Light” – is the main reason Here’s To Taking It Easy doesn’t deserve to be tossed aside. It’s affirmation of Houck’s ability to craft unique songs and proof that his name deserves to be mentioned among the Conor Obersts and A.A. Bondys of the world.

It starts with a two-note chord, but morphs into a swell of layered vocals, sparse bass, handclaps, and spirited percussion. It’s the most memorable, and haunting, track on the album.

For all the joy, there are still melancholy moments (“The Mermaid Parade”) and beautiful downtempo tunes (“Nothing Was Stolen”) on the nine-song set, but the stories told on slow burners like “We’ll Be Here Soon” are tinged with a drunken sense of hope and celebration. The essence of Phosphorescent’s latest effort should be summed up in the song’s lyric:

“lay your ass out on the floor/raise your glass we’ll praise and laugh and praise some more…we’ll fix ourselves another beer and you know we’ll be here still.”

Cheers to that.