Kicking the album off is ‘Buy Some Time’, a deliberately paced and easygoing track that vocally sounds an awful lot like a lightweight Pinback cut (and ‘lightweight Pinback’ is saying something). It’s an unobtrusive sound, like a kid poking his head around the corner and asking something coy (possibly about comics) – but it’s also an infectious sound, and after a few listens you want to ask that timid little kid inside to hear more. And he is one eclectic kid. ‘Comforted & Questioned’ gets a little jaunty, with bouncy brass supporting the Badly Drawn Boy-ish da-na-na-na chorus, and elsewhere eerie, weird discordance fills out two minutes quite enjoyably in ‘Dig the Water’. Arrangements are for the most part fairly lush, and carry an effectively full sound without overwhelming the vocals.

 

In the realm of introspective low-fi the line between wearing vulnerability on your sleeve and sewing a whole sweater out of it is a fine one indeed, and many artists struggle to produce earnest soul-searching without rotting away into obvious affectation. The Woods do pretty well here, and stay for the most part on the right side of the line. ‘Peach’s Pit’ is the perfect example – lyrically it covers pretty typical themes (“I’ve been lost and I’ve been found…”) but the pencil-lines-still-showing composition manages to separate it from becoming just another tree on the landscape.