Sherwood - 'A Different Light'
Californian Indie Band Sherwood Release Their Second Album
With 'A Different Light', Californian indie band Sherwood have released an impressive second album that mixes the best of the Beach Boys with Jimmy Eat World.
- Genre: indie / indie pop / indie rock
- Joe Greenetz (drums), Nate Henry (vocals / bass), Dan Koch (guitar / vocals), Mike Leibovich (keyboards / percussion)
- Sounds like: Jimmy Eat World, The Beach Boys, Something Corporate
- Home: San Luis Obispo, California
- Sherwood
MySpace And Beyond
Whenever a band becomes synonymous with a brand, it can usually mean one of two things – they either don't have a lot of talent and are riding on the coat tails of something far more popular and therefore with more chance of success, or they've been chosen to represent that brand because of the strength of their music. Sherwood definitely falls into the latter category, and prove this effortlessly with their sophomore album A Different Light, recently released on the newly formed MySpace Records.
Hailing from the Central Coast city of San Luis Obispo, Sherwood's latest offering brings that ubiquitous Californian feel to your CD player. This perhaps isn't surprising – in a recent interview, keyboardist Mike revealed that the Beach Boys influence features heavily in the music of Sherwood – not a bad thing, considering the heritage of the influences. The result is an album at once uplifting yet still able to reach into you with its often-dark lyrical themes.
Energy With Melody
Lead track and first single Song In My Head is a perfect example of this. Opening with a solitary keyboard intro that sounds uncannily like Michael Jackson's She's Out Of My Life, it soon explodes into life when vocalist and bassist Nate and guitarist Dan breathe life into the song with a determined bass line and power chord guitar. Joe on drums adds to the overall feel of the perfect summer song, and you can see why this is beginning to get serious airplay on college radio stations everywhere. A solid start and a good indication of the songs ahead.
This is followed by The Best In Me, a live favourite that shows off not only the melodious attributes Sherwood have throughout all their songs, but also the musicianship they possess. This isn't a band that are enjoying overnight success with MySpace Records – this is a unit that has put the time in on the live circuit, and this tightness comes across in this song. Infectious handclaps and voice box backing are the key words here, and it's a rollicking feel good anthem of a tune.
Staying Power
Yet it's not just the up-tempo numbers that Sherwood excels at. With Home, they've written a guitar-led power ballad that's more than able to hold its own with the bigger boys in the indie pop rock arena. Never saccharine, the chorus brings to mind classic British rock band Magnum and their mighty On A Storyteller's Night epic. Impressive stuff indeed, and a song that shows that Sherwood should have staying power long after the current fads in music have gone.
Whether it's with tracks like Alley Cat, that's almost like a softer dance track with its synth-heavy vibe, or title track A Different Light, which is almost Beatlesque with its chord structure and harmony-rich vocals, Sherwood have given us an album that's both diverse and lasts in the memory long after the first listen. And you really can't ask for much more than that.
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