Wooden Shjips – V. (Review)

Wooden Shjips are a US psychedelic rock band and this is their fifth album.

This album contains 42 minutes of warm, amiable, fuzzy rock. This is a band that promote peace and positivity, and this comes off this retro-soaked album in waves.

Mixing psychedelic, classic, garage, and progressive rock together in an easy, free-form way, and then marinading it in heady 60s vibes, this is an album that’s hard to dislike. It’s an engrossing listen, with the band’s disarming sound drawing you in further and further each time you listen to it.

Loose and light, the music crests laid back waves of relaxation and exploratory nuance. Taking an atavistic and primal approach to its rock music, the songs on this album are friendly and welcoming, and can get surprisingly intimate with the listener very quickly. Before you know it the album is all cosy and snuggled up to you, when all you really want to do is be mean and kvlt. Or something. Either way, V. is like a long-lost old friend that you’ve reconnected with.

This album is, in many ways, the antithesis of 2018, and that’s not necessarily any bad thing. In fact, judging by how subtly enjoyable and unexpectedly endearing this music is, it’s probably a very good thing indeed.

Check this out, and be prepared to slide into a warm, hazy, relaxing mood.