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Those instrumental breaks certainly add a wild-card element to Sun and Shade, furthering the band’s sound rather than allowing it to rest on past laurels. That eye on progress is something that the members of Woods have quite the knack for, yet the band hasn’t, by any means, forgotten their lo-fi roots.
What the critics are saying:
The Boston Phoenix: Their sixth full-length, Sun & Shade is among their strongest, continuing to take poppy folk songs, soak them with sunny West Coast psychedelia, and bend them with the band’s idiosyncratic take on ambient sound.
Consequence of Sound: The tape hiss and low-rent production cast behind singer/guitarist Jeremy Earl’s swallowed falsetto often served as the primary definition of Woods. And while there’s still a sense of DIY sound on Sun and Shade, the focus of the music has a much more communal feel.
Spin: [O]n the band’s sixth album, they’re most comfortable in the spot where Guided by Voices (“Any Other Day”) bump into the Kinks (“What Faces the Sheet”) — slightly psychedelic and frequently sticky, breezily charming and pleasantly woozy.
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Pitchfork: In whatever mode they’re working, the take-away is that Woods are good at all these sounds, and they seem to be striving to get even better. Despite their ultra-slack style and prodigious output, nothing about them says “half-assed,” so it’s another year, another fine Woods album.
Sun and Shade is out now via Woodsist. Woods are scheduled to play The Rhythm Room on Wednesday, August 3.
