Woods
I listened to the first several tracks of With Light and With Love, with its psychedelic guitar sound, and was intrigued to find the final track “Feather Man” had a surprising Western flavor. Basically, if Pink Floyd had grown up in Nebraska, they would have written “Feather Man”.
With Light and With Love is the eighth album from the impressively prolific Brooklyn-based indie folk-rock band Woods. In fact, they are so indie they recorded their first seven albums without a professional studio. As their first studio album, With Light and With Love has a more polished sound than its predecessors. Formed in 2005, the band’s membership now includes singer-guitarist Jeremy Earl, multi-instrumentalist Jarvis Taveniere, bassist Kevin Morby and drummer Aaron Neveu.
If you like exceptionally high-pitched male vocals, you will find solace in Earl’s soothing, yet haunting voice. If you do not, I’m afraid it gets a bit annoying after a while. There are also times, on the title track in particular, where the guitar solo descends into a harsh dissonance that seems out of place with the rest of the mellow music. The lyrics have a certain poetry to them. Nothing earth-shattering enough to incite rebellion, mind you, but enough to make poignant comments on the human condition.
There are no songs on this album you can tap your feet to. No dance club DJ will get a request for one of these tracks and no teenager will sing along in defiance after a harsh breakup. This isn’t that kind of album. This is the one you listen to at 3 a.m. after the party is over, the last roach is burning down to an ember and you’re still on the ragged edge of intoxication when the conversation turns to the philosophical. Unfortunately, I don’t smoke pot and I go to bed at a decent hour, so I’m afraid this album was not for me.
