Bend Beyond

2012 release, the seventh album from the Brooklyn-born Indie Folk band. For Bend Beyond, Woods got dark. It's not that they weren't dark before: when you really get in there and listen, Jeremy Earl is singing about some heavy stuff, but it's hidden under his gorgeous falsetto and sometimes obtuse lyrics. On Bend Beyond, though, Earl and company fully embrace that darkness. While previous albums sounded like they went directly from Earl's brain to tape with minimal outside interference, Bend Beyond is lush and full-bodied, the work of a band in perfect, heavy harmony. Listening to the record as a whole, it feels like the most daring leap Woods has made yet: It captures the band's live intensity, but keeps the intimate sadness that made them so great in the first place.