25042014 - Woods "With Light and With Love"

From the beginning of the first song, right when the slide guitar kicks in, I'm smiling. Ah luvs me some slide geetar! When the vocals come in, I'm not that sure, though. I can't tell if it's the nu-folkish voice or the annoying effects, but "Shepherd" works best for me when that guitar takes over. Still, all is mostly good. On the second track, the sound effects are gone, and I'm really getting into this. No slide guitar, but some nifty hammond organ more than makes up for that. It's the title track though, that really gets me. Byrds-y guitar open this nine minute epic, and rambling lyrics about love and death is always a good thing. It's fairly drawn out, jammy and trippy, moving in and out of focus, building up to... Oh, just listen to the damn thing, won't you? This is by far the highlight of the album, and even though there are several good tunes throughout the thing, the rest of this record never surpasses those first three songs. Especially the title track!