Terror in the Canyons (The Wounded Master)

Terror in the Canyons is track four on Muchacho, written by Houck. Pitchfork's Jayson Greene praised the rounded pop of its drum track, paired with tumbles of upright piano and softly pattering bongos. He also pointed to its high-flown lyric, in which the narrator sings that he was the wounded master and he was the slave, the holy lion and the cage, the bleeding actor and the stage.

The track features Houck on guitar and percussion, Jeff Bailey on bass, Bobby Hawk on fiddle, Ricky Ray Jackson on pedal steel and electric lead guitar, Scott Stapleton on piano and synthesizer, Christopher Marine on drums, Kyle Resnick on trumpet, Benjamin Lanz on trombone, Jon Natchez on bass saxophone and David Torch on bongo drums and percussion. John Agnello mixed it.

Live

Setlist.fm lists it among Phosphorescent's most-played songs, with 110 plays. On Live at the Music Hall it follows A New Anhedonia, and Pitchfork's Currin thought both stayed close to their studio versions, though Houck screams the final chorus. A 2013 BBC Radio performance is the second track on The BBC Sessions EP. Pitchfork's Deusner wrote that the BBC version drops the two-step country beat of the album, and that Houck sounds wrung out, nearly feral, when he reaches the line about the bleeding actor.