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The Daily Cardinal Est. 1892
Thursday, March 28, 2024
Woods

Record Routine: Brooklyn band builds on jam-rock foundation with seventh studio album

Brooklyn-based Woods create an intimate feel on their newest studio album, With Light and With Love. Blending ’60s country slide guitar, folk and lo-fi, the four-piece ensemble has developed a strong fan base since their start in the mid-’00s. Woods have created their own label, on which With Light and With Love was released, and started an annual music festival in Big Sur, Calif.

This album marks the first time the band has recorded in an “official” studio. Previously, the group would record in various settings, including at Woodsist, their Big Sur festival.

Singer Jeremy Earl’s vocals and guitar playing harken back to the era of large-scale jam-band festivals from the 1970s, but the flexibility in production allows for a modern approach to the process. The title track is a nine-minute opus that allows for experimentation with the other three members of the group.

After the searing nine-minute experimentation on “With Light and With Love,” the lyrics of “Moving To the Left” and “New Light” seem to signal a directional shift in the group’s recording.

“Moving to the Left” is the most obvious effort for mainstream recognition, with its brash-yet-enjoyable instrumentation. “New Light” features a very basic structure, with lyrics pining for a lost “light” alongside simple blues guitar.

While “Leaves Like Glass” features organ and guitar lines similar to an Allman Brothers Band recording, the final four tracks of the album seem to move away from the jam band experience found in the opening of the album.

Songs like “Twin Steps” and “Only the Lonely” incorporate ’60s psychedelic and ’70s progressive-rock elements, which account for some spice on the later part of the album. Unfortunately, the dull “Full Moon” and “Feather Man” get lost in their own indie folk ethos and fall into the background of the standout tracks on the record.

Without uprooting any of the tracks the band has laid since their inception, With Light and With Love feels like a step in the right direction for Woods. If they can hold onto their jam-band roots, the group is sure to find popular recognition from a variety of fans in the folk and rock genres.

Rating: B

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