Album Details

• Artist: The Wooden Sky
• Album: If I Don't Come Home You'll Know I'm Gone.
• Label: Black Box Recordings
• Year of Release: 2009
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: archelon on 2009-09-16

Media

If there was ever an inbuilt flaw with indie, I'd say it was thinking with your emotions too much. When making deep and interesting music, it's always tempting to go deeper and use albums to bleed off the poison, a great theory, but usually not backed up with a great deal of common sense and smarts. The Wooden Sky however, have done just that - and the results are nothing short of epic. I tell you all now - I've not been affected by an album this much in a good while.

It's well-delivered, the musicianship is superb and the songwriting is akin to Bob Dylan and Wilco's love child growing up with Pink Floyd - there's plenty of sonic experimentation and interesting arrangements but it's such easy listening you don't even know you're being engaged. There are smooth country anthems, soft folk harmonies and moments of rock howling all packaged together to create a ridiculously diverse signature sound, and one that won't leave your head for hours after listening.

Cloud 9 points include the opener, the folky, gospel-y ‘Oh My God (It Still Means A Lot To Me)', and later we have the truly hypnotic ‘An Evening Hymn' and the rocky, edgy ‘Lock And Key'. My personal favourite? The last track, 'River Song One'. The lyrics are poignant and somehow cleansing, and the simple, classical arrangment makes it feel like you're listening to an emotion, not just a song.

Anyone who has ever had a summer holiday romance will get the gist of this album instantly. It's a beautiful, bittersweet, genre-less mess of a record, fading you through the most abstract stages of human emotion and leaving you stood outside with your eyes closed and your face to the sun. And if you need further proof, it's just put my mother-in-law to sleep on the bed a few metres away from me.

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