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Nov 20, 2012100Woods works well to find the right space for each instrument, maintaining the balance between accuracy and capriciousness that continues to define the band.
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Sep 21, 201290Another near-flawless piece of work.
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Sep 18, 201282It's a brief culmination of practice making perfect, with Earl and his band showing why they make a new album every year--because more and more often they are getting it right.
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Sep 18, 201281Woods' greatest strength has always been songwriting, and sharpening the focus and cleaning up the production has only enhanced the band's welcoming melodies.
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Oct 26, 201280Earl has often been overshadowed by bands on the Woodsist label he runs, but here Woods are allowed to stand out from the trees. [Dec 2012, p.79]
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Sep 27, 201280With fewer experimental throwaways, the album puts the band's best foot forward: toe-tapping, harmony-laden kernels of pop.
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Sep 26, 201280While Woods may falter here and there, Bend Beyond stills manages to hold its own and then some. The Brooklyn-based band may have cleaned up their sound since Songs of Shame, but their signature spontaneity and amplitude come through better than ever.
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Sep 24, 201280They deepen their sound past lo-fi into something redolent of actual studio polish.
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Sep 18, 201280Rather than make giant artistic leaps every few years or so, Woods are content to push forward incrementally, showering fans with material that nonetheless gets better every record.
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Sep 17, 201280Bend Beyond is the most fully realized set of songs yet from Woods, and continues a lineage of each record surpassing their last.
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Sep 17, 201280Woods hit upon some of their clearest depictions of dark emotions on Bend Beyond, while simultaneously offering an escape in the emotive beauty of their music.
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Sep 27, 201277You'll find records this year of greater agency, but you'd be hard-pressed to find one that renders pleasure with such poignant lightness, control, and willful attention to difference.
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Sep 18, 201275Besides a cyclical feeling that veers the album into the direction of repetition at several points, Bend Beyond is a solid listen.
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Oct 29, 201270Much of the LP will be familiar to anyone who caught them on the road last year, but songs that curled into smoky haze onstage come into sharp focus here. [No.92 p.61]
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Oct 2, 201270Another solid release.
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Sep 21, 201270Bend Beyond however, peaks with intense bursts of energy, elevating this once stoner-friendly three-piece into a strange new world. Too menacing to be called folk and too precise to anymore be called a jam band, Woods is rolling with a newfound sense of poise and concentration.
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Sep 21, 201270With Taveniere choosing to feather dust his Rear House recording tendencies for this go-round, Bend Beyond comes off as a bold, bright statement.
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Sep 17, 201270It lilts, but it gets by. [Aug/Sep 2012, p.115]
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Sep 17, 201270The psychedelic outings sound too sharp as a consequence, but it's an effective repositioning overall, even if it's hard not to want to scruff up their hair just a little.
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Oct 22, 201260In sonic terms, it's considerably more aspirational than even last year's Sun And Shade, allowing Earl's take on various ages of American song-craft to snap into sharper focus. [Nov 2012, p.84]
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Sep 17, 201260It's hard to get excited about a record that rarely moves from its musical comfort blanket. But there are still moments.