Artist: Woods
Album: Songs Of Shame
Year: 2009
Grade: 3 pretzels
I have a tremendously awkward relationship with the genre known as “lo-fi”. For those who don’t know, lo-fi is a style of music that celebrates low production values, often sounding like it was recorded in somebody’s living room (often, because it was). It’s a style full of errors and rough edges, but, at its best, those flaws become important to the music, creating something very grounded and real. The genre had its golden years in the 1990s, with bands like Pavement and Guided By Voices flying the lo-fi flag high. Recently, however, it seems like there’s been a resurgence of lo-fi, with bands like Wavves and Cymbals Eat Guitars lighting up blogs all over the world. The problem with all this is that I mostly hate lo-fi. Very few bands have managed to accomplish creating music that sounds better with flaws in it than otherwise. Too often, I just end up listening to records that are under-recorded simply because the artists think it’s a cool thing to do, when in fact, everything would sound better with a few overdubs cleaning up the mess. Woods’ Songs Of Shame exists in a strange middle ground between those two extremes.
These guys are pretty damn obscure. They have no Wikipedia page and the only reason I heard about them in the first place is thanks the ubiquitous Pitchfork and their Best New Music. Apparently, they’re from New York. They’re also apparently signed to a label (Woodsist Records, I’m told) that has a history of releasing music like this. That’s about all the information I can find about them. Clearly, they’re not a band trying to reach out and find lots of success. All I’ve really got to judge them on is this one album.
Of course, being lo-fi and all that, the first thing that jumps out is the poor recording style. Nothing is mixed well, there are tape hisses on every song and the drums sound like they’re being recorded in someone’s kitchen down the hall (they probably are, too). Even stranger is Jeremy Earl’s voice, which sounds like Neil Young after a balloon-full of helium. High-pitched and constantly out of tune, his voice is a bit of a tough sell. These intentional “mistakes” simply don’t add much to the music, however. They sound like mistakes and they are glaring to the listener.
However, hidden beneath all the murk and audio bleed are some incredibly lovely songs. This is the one major step up Woods have on similar bands. They’re much more inclined towards folksy, rural strumming than their peers, who favor rampant, sprawling soundscapes and this emphasis on more “pure” songwriting results in some great tunes. The downbeat “Rain On” continues the Neil Young analogies, with a moving minor-key melody worthy of Young himself. There’s also some impressive percussion throughout the album, best heard on “The Hold”. Yet another highlight comes from a faithful cover of Graham Nash’s “Military Madness”, complete with a big, strong, country-style guitar riff.
It’s nice to hear a lo-fi album that actually has some substance beneath the surface layer of grit and fuzz. However, great songs notwithstanding, that surface layer still doesn’t add anything substantial to the album as a whole. In my mind, this album would simply be better without the hisses and scratches and shit. The album would lose nothing by having one less group of distractions between the songs and the listener. There’s a very good album hidden within Songs Of Shame. It’s just a matter of whether or not you have the patience to find it.
These guys are pretty damn obscure. They have no Wikipedia page and the only reason I heard about them in the first place is thanks the ubiquitous Pitchfork and their Best New Music. Apparently, they’re from New York. They’re also apparently signed to a label (Woodsist Records, I’m told) that has a history of releasing music like this. That’s about all the information I can find about them. Clearly, they’re not a band trying to reach out and find lots of success. All I’ve really got to judge them on is this one album.
Of course, being lo-fi and all that, the first thing that jumps out is the poor recording style. Nothing is mixed well, there are tape hisses on every song and the drums sound like they’re being recorded in someone’s kitchen down the hall (they probably are, too). Even stranger is Jeremy Earl’s voice, which sounds like Neil Young after a balloon-full of helium. High-pitched and constantly out of tune, his voice is a bit of a tough sell. These intentional “mistakes” simply don’t add much to the music, however. They sound like mistakes and they are glaring to the listener.
However, hidden beneath all the murk and audio bleed are some incredibly lovely songs. This is the one major step up Woods have on similar bands. They’re much more inclined towards folksy, rural strumming than their peers, who favor rampant, sprawling soundscapes and this emphasis on more “pure” songwriting results in some great tunes. The downbeat “Rain On” continues the Neil Young analogies, with a moving minor-key melody worthy of Young himself. There’s also some impressive percussion throughout the album, best heard on “The Hold”. Yet another highlight comes from a faithful cover of Graham Nash’s “Military Madness”, complete with a big, strong, country-style guitar riff.
It’s nice to hear a lo-fi album that actually has some substance beneath the surface layer of grit and fuzz. However, great songs notwithstanding, that surface layer still doesn’t add anything substantial to the album as a whole. In my mind, this album would simply be better without the hisses and scratches and shit. The album would lose nothing by having one less group of distractions between the songs and the listener. There’s a very good album hidden within Songs Of Shame. It’s just a matter of whether or not you have the patience to find it.
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