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Jul 30, 2014 Woods By Michael Wojtas

Acting as an extension of this spring’s excellent With Light and With Love LP, this 7” finds smoked-out New York folkies Woods continuing to explore a territory that’s lusher—and perhaps even weirder—than their earlier lo-fi patchworks.

Gliding along on a sprightly single-note guitar line that sounds like something Paul Simon might’ve whistled, generously pretty A-side “Tambourine Light” is so fluid, it distracts you from just how carefully constructed it is. It’s as politely stoned as The Beau Brummels, The Monkees, or The Association, and as purely pop-minded as anything on With Light.

Lysergic rock B-side “Tomorrow Is Only Yesterday” sports a title that nods to Revolver (why not?), and initially feels sloppier and less involved than Woods’ recent output. Yet, some headphone exploration reveals this to be disarray by design. Beneath frontman Jeremy Earl’s ever-eerie falsetto oohs and ahs, mischievous, dueling guitar textures vie for our attention. One, a muted splash of wah-wah, swims between channels. Meanwhile, a deep, percolating fuzz makes a swampy mess of the surprisingly funky low end (this may be the first Woods song that reminds anyone of There’s a Riot Goin’ On). Eventually, a searing solo erupts, and as if beamed in from The Stooges’ first record, it just about consumes the entire mix.

While the single itself doesn’t quite coalesce into something substantial, it’s a valuable reminder that learning to labor over one’s sound need not mean normalizing it. (www.woodsist.com/woods/)

Author rating: 6.5/10