New York – Wooden Head is an easy album to like; with soft-spoken lyrics and melodic guitar riffs so mellow, the modern listener may go as far as to call it “chill.” However, it’s hard to speak of such an old-timey sounding record in current slang terms. For their debut, English indie rockers The Proper Ornaments have crafted a sound that seems to have been lifted straight out the psychedelic era. The album, rather than simply channeling the past, recreates it with little acknowledgement to the musical movements in-between now and the 1960s. There is evidence of the atmospheric and distorted sounds that have come in the forty years since, but primarily the record seems to be a valiant effort at carbon copying an older sound. For their first full-length, James Hoare and Max Claps have created the musical equivalent of Fanfiction. If the bands of ‘60s could hear Wooden Head, they would probably blush.
It seems an easy line to draw given that the band is named after a The Free Design song off of 1967’sKites Are Fun. Wooden Head was also the name of a The Turtles album that came out in 1969. Coincidence? I think not. It is somewhat reassuring that the band seems fully aware of the way their sound comes across. In an interview with London’s Loud and Quiet, Hoare, also part of Veronica Falls, said that they were “not trying to be the ’60s, but maybe 2012’s version of the ’60s.”
Lyrically, Wooden Head deals with themes that transcend time, from breakups to staying in bed all day. “Tire Me Out” straddles the line between falling in love and falling apart, while the guitars wrap the listener up in a repetitive but gentle riff. “Ruby” follows a similarly lovesick track, with an equally upbeat and sunny tune, as does the album’s lead single “Magazine.” The latter is a darker spot on the album, but only lyrically. There is some introspection in “Now I Understand,” and an unexpected death in “Don’t You Want To Know (What You’re Going to Be),” but otherwise the words don’t veer far from relationships and the changing of seasons. “Summer’s Gone,” another sunny song, manages to touch on topics more complex than the weather with lyrics like: “Now that you’re old enough to lose your own mind.” By in large, however, each track follows in the same range in both music and lyrics, with no one striking too far out on it’s own. They orbit the same sleepy sounds and themes, with the occasional hint of 80s-wannabe-60s and modern indie sounds.
Wooden Head as a whole can be experienced in a microcosm through it’s opening track “Gone”. The song’s lo-fi sound is oddly charming, with a barely audible crunch. The instrumental and sonic consistency makes for a warm and leisurely listen. Like the record, the song gets to you early; the riffs build so subtly to an infectious brightness that you hardly notice yourself beginning to move. Each equally catchy faction is blended together into one hazy sound. With Wooden Head, nothing quite jumps out at you, but nothing upsets you either; everything just kind of pleasantly passes over you like a cloud of neo-psych and English accents.
Zoe Marquedant
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