Album Review: Woods - At Echo Lake

I should be freaking out about being practically unemployed. Instead I am joyfully sitting in the sunshine outside Cafe Oto in Dalston lingering over a latte and listening to Woods. It's almost impossible to freak out listening to At Echo Lake. The album is released on the Woodsist label, the same stable that brought us Real Estate, Kurt Vile and Blank Dogs. The words bandied about here are lo-fi, psychedelic and noise pop. It's all about the homespun vibe, with the label being one of the first to resurrect the cassette tape as a means of promotion and album covers embracing the 'look what I made at school mommy' aesthethic.



Unlike darker labelmate Blank Dogs, Woods eschew the more dirgeful sounds in favour of lighter, spanglier tambourine sounds. Although indisputably melancholic, it's a summer Pet Sounds kind of melancholy that we find here. Death Rattle contains the phrase 'god only knows' which I assume is a direct reference to the seminal Beach Boys album. The Brian Jonestown Massacre influence is also undeniable. The track I Was Gone commences with a count off that could have come straight off BJM album Thank God For Mental Illness.

At Echo Park really comes into its own when slides into psychedelic instrumental reminiscent of artists such as Captain Beefheart and Donovan. The track From The Horn is a perfect example of this, building slowly into sonorous psychedelic trip.

Lyrics like 'we can fuck ourselves to sleep'(if my ears serve me correctly)and 'who knows what tomorrow might bring?' set the narrative tone of the album.

Woods meld their influences to create a warm fuzzy lo-fi sound that evokes sea, picnics and sunshine. Job? Who needs a job?