Woods
Songs Of Shame

“Unexpressed Potential"

I could have started this review by mentioning Woodsist, praising it as one of the best labels in the current American “weird folk” field, possibly adding that the owner is also the person behind the acronym Woods. But honestly, you can find this and other information in all the reviews already on the web about “Songs Of Shame”, so I’ll spare myself the unnecessary effort.

I could have sung the praises of this beautiful example of lo-fi folk, and at first glance, I would have written about it that way, especially for the beautiful vocal lines of the opening tracks “To Clean”, “The Hold” and “The Number”; but lately, I see the glass always half empty, so I can’t overlook the desire to pass off almost total technical incapacity as an aesthetic musical choice. Yes, in short, strumming and stumbling upon a melody is not enough to become Pavement, to be bluntly general.

I could have unnecessarily elaborated on the lack of critical spirit that characterizes industry professionals and the same 2.0 listeners, always ready to get excited about anything that manages to stay afloat in the sea of musical mediocrity that surrounds us. But I would be a bit hypocritical, considering that I actually bought this album originally (but that's more about a viral consumerist impulse that has been consuming me for years).

So, I could have cheerfully labeled these songs as shameful (and I would have even sounded clever by paraphrasing the English title), but that would have been unjust, because the cover of Graham Nash, “Military Madness”, and especially the long “September With Pete”, halfway between Peter Green of “End Of The Game” and Bruce Palmer of “The Cycle Is Complete”, significantly raise the overall quality level.

I could have finally ended the review here, but since it's only 10 PM while I'm writing, I'll include the shopping list from last Friday: 6 eggs, a liter of milk, 500g of prosciutto tortellini, a tub of lamb chops (divine), very cheap toilet paper, a net of lemons, stracchino cheese, 3 zucchinis, and a nice Ferrero Rocher.