In the distant past, high on Mount Olympus, the Greek gods held sway. And although not a pantheon known for peaceful households, behind one celestial door there is harmony for a little over 45 minutes as god of sleep Hypnos, goddess of rest and relaxation Pasithea and their son, god of dreams Morpheus, come together for the latest record from Woods.
All three deities can stake a claim to Strange to Explain; it is a record preoccupied with sleep and is a soundtrack to the dreams you will have when you get there. These themes are evident just from a cursory glance down the tracklist, but thankfully are delivered with subtlety and a touch gentle enough to please even Pasithea.
All three deities can stake a claim to Strange to Explain; it is a record preoccupied with sleep and is a soundtrack to the dreams you will have when you get there. These themes are evident just from a cursory glance down the tracklist, but thankfully are delivered with subtlety and a touch gentle enough to please even Pasithea.
Masters of texture and timbre, Woods ease away from their usual jangly guitars into a warm Mellotron-led ambience but make no mistake, these tracks are not lullabies, they are dream fuel. Strange to Explain opens with a perfect trio of wide-eyed indie-pop songs – the pick of which is the aptly-titled 'Where Do You Go When You Dream?' – introducing the startlingly organic interweaving of sounds, instruments and drums which breathe together as one throughout the record. Woods started life as Jeremy Earl's solo project back in 2005, and since then the project has been in a constant state of evolution and reinvention; its 2020 incarnation is as tight and talented a musical unit as you could hope for.
The otherworldly atmosphere established at the outset is present even on more stripped-back tracks like 'Just To Fall Asleep', where acoustic guitar prevails and haunting vocal harmonies soar, and permeates through the bustle of 'Fell So Hard' to deliver a pop chorus straight out of the 70s. This echo recurs wonderfully on 'Light of Day', a timeless slice of sunshine music with another killer chorus, while on 'Can't Get Out' the band come close to Arcade Fire's expansive surround sound.
Strange to Explain was written as a reaction to a bizarre world which has got a lot more bizarre since the finishing touches were applied – but luckily the record is a perfect piece of escapism which could absorb a hell of a lot more weirdness before breaking under the pressure. Combined with a sound which could bring a little bit of summer even behind the icy doors of the Covid lockdown this one-of-a-kind record is an ideal tonic for 2020 as we know it.
