Woods – Bend Beyond

Woods – Bend Beyond (Woodsist)

Part of me feels a swelling of admiration at the sight of a dude with a gigantic beard, and then that part of me is reminded that I’ve dated dudes with gigantic beards. Though magnificent in principle, they are occasionally flecked with disproportionately repulsive bits of food, and the extent to which their wiry little curls get in the way makes me wonder how similar kissing the mouth buried beneath them is to going down on a chick who keeps things au naturel. Which brings me to Woods. To my knowledge, falsetto-ed frontman Jeremy Earl remains as bearded as ever, but on his band’s latest album they’ve groomed their sweet but occasionally sloppy folk/rock, trimming away the outlying fuzz and brushing up their songwriting just enough to reveal their most refined and appealing album yet.

By Carly Blair