At Echo Lake

Woods - At Echo Lake
Critic Score
Based on 14 reviews
2010 Ratings: #173 / 924
User Score
Based on 67 ratings
2010 Rank: #208
Liked by 5 people
May 4, 2010 / Release Date
LP / Format
Woodsist / Label
- / Genre
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CRITIC REVIEWS

80
Pitchfork

Lo-fi heroes graduate to crafting country-inflected indie pop that's part Wowee Zowee and part Workingman's Dead.

80
PopMatters

It’s probably easy to hate on Woods. The band plays what has been invariably described as “spooky campfire folk” with a serious hippie-1960s-classic rock influence, which would be all well and good if they came from where their music sounded like it came from (say, Vermont). Fact is, however, they’re from Brooklyn. Yes, another Brooklyn hipster band, and this one with the audacity to sing songs about woods and lakes when anyone who’s been to Brooklyn knows these things exist there in very short supply.

80
The Needle Drop

Y'all may remember I loved their last album, Songs of Shame, and At Echo Lake is a worth follow-up, for sure. There's more variation and a slightly more upbeat attitude. I just wish this band would bite the bullet and come out with something a little more fleshed out, but the style here is still unique enough to keep me interested, really interested.

70
Drowned in Sound

Tape culture has become all zeitgeisty these past couple of years; the New York Times, Guardian and Pitchfork amongst others have all devoted articles to the resurgence of the 'dead' format. Whatever the reasons behind it – nostalgia, aesthetics, rejection of modern technology, willful obsolescence – it's popular. Last year writer Ceci Moss identified 101 cassette labels in operation. There's probably more now. The whole movement ties in with the chillwave/glo-fi/whatever scene – Ducktails, Toro Y Moi, Washed Out and others have released tapes in the past year. And Fuck It Tapes, the cassette label of Woods frontman Jeremy Earl have releases from Vivian Girls, Wavves and Blank Dogs in the catalogue.

LZGray
70

This is really cool! It's only 29 minutes, so it feels more like an immediate collage rather than a fully fleshed out project, so it comes off as a bit scant, but the atmosphere is really creepy and haunted. Every performance from the squawky falsetto vocals to the twang of the country guitars adds to that eerie vibrancy to create something so serene and wondrous within a freaky aesthetic. I'd be curious to explore more from these guys, as I think At Echo Lake shows lots of promise and ... read more

dearsongs
NR

Woods has been putting out really great music for a decade now, but this album still works the best for me. Pretty amazing how overlooked this band is, imo this is as good a psychedelic freak-folk album as you will find this decade.

Blood Dries Darker, Suffering Season, Time Fading Lines & Death Rattles are all essential Woods tracks. The other songs on here are all varying degrees of awesome 2 minute psychedelic lo-fi stoner folk tunes.

WillianDias
85

At Echo Lake doesn't really go beyond the sounds they've already tested with the previous record, yet it's another effortless achievement by Woods. Lo-fi music at it's most nostalgic and beautiful.

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