First time we’ve covered him since 2009… we liked him better then…
[Video][Website]
[4.50]
Iain Mew: I’ve never got into Richard Hawley before, but I love a couple of songs on his new album (“Standing at the Sky’s Edge” and “Seek It” and “Before”), which are rich with wit and mystery and some awesome guitar playing. This is not one of those songs. I think the chief problem is that everything is covered in fuzz, but it’s not even particularly great fuzz, and from what I can make out of the narrative it doesn’t feel worth fishing around that much for more. It also stops the solo from standing out — on the best songs they unfold unexpectedly and with dramatic new emotions, but here it just intensifies the fuzz a bit.
[4]
Anthony Easton: Following him down to the woods probably wouldn’t be filled with the uncanny Crowleyan magic he’s aiming for but rather a dullness with someone who cares deeply about what computers can do for rock and roll, man. Might have worked better with an acoustic and the track pitched a bit lower.
[5]
Brad Shoup: I just can’t hack this kind of psychedelic sawgrass.
[4]
Jonathan Bogart: Psychedelic rock has never sounded so exhausted.
[2]
Patrick St. Michel: The first minute and a half of this is an attempt to be “psychedelic” without any trippy returns. Thankfully, it kicks in shortly after, as Hawley’s voice undergoes some weird touches and the music turns to a hypnotic crawl. What follows justifies all the mismatched colors found in the music video.
[6]
Mallory O’Donnell: Great tune, horribly compressed, weak lyric, powerful arrangement, tentative production, outstanding playing, retro in a cool way, retro in an uncool way. Everything about “Down in the Woods” is push-and-pull, back and forth and I can’t quite commit to it the way it can’t quite commit to me. But I keep coming back for more, like there’s some kind of secret down there, down in the woods…
[7]
Edward Okulicz: I really thought Hawley’s rich voice, surprisingly wide emotional palette and skill with songs of all kinds could make me listen to him doing anything. Until he decided to go washed-out psychedelia in lieu of the aforementioned richness and skill, that is.
[5]
Alfred Soto: I’m not sure who he thinks he’s fooling with those vocal filters. Judging by the lyrics and those power chords, maybe he’s smarter than the rest of us.
[3]