Woods

Another year, another Woods record. The Brooklyn, NY crew have been pumping them out at a pretty steady clip lately, with each new album more polished than the last ― "polished" being a relative term in this case. Like kindred spirit Sonny Smith did with his latest, Woods's fifth (not including myriad cassette and seven-inch releases) adopts a laidback country vibe that mixes with the group's lo-fi folk and indie tunes. Bend Beyond abandons both the noise flourishes and psychedelic jams of the past to become the Woods' most song-based record to date. "Cali in a Cup" and "Is it Honest" are two of the catchiest tunes the group have produced to date, the band channelling the sound of '70s Laurel Canyon through an eight-track in a Brooklyn Apartment. Rather than make giant artistic leaps every few years or so, Woods are content to push forward incrementally, showering fans with material that nonetheless gets better every record.