Sherwood - Middle Of The Night

Hear The Track Here

As you know I have, for the past two or three years, been drawing tracks from 3 main sites; Soundclick (primarily), MP3 Unsigned and Songplanet. This track, however, comes from an entirely different place and is a little bit of history. This is the very first review request coming from my RebelRiffs blog so yaay for that right? OK, stop rolling your eyes now, I'll get on with it. Sherwood made an initial good impression with this track from their Summer EP whose link you see above, so I went a-digging. A fourpeice from San Luis Obispo carry on a fine Califiornia tradition on a very bright and breezy guitar pop track that has the Beach Boys stamped all over it.

That isn't to say, btw, that Sherwood are a BB clone, far from it. It will take more than a couple of listens to properly get a grip on this track but it surrenders surprise after surprise so listening really is a pleasure. Mind you, I've always had a taste for pop-rock music that feature vocal harmonies and Sherwood have some very fancy ones. That isn't everything they bring to the party because pretty voices are only that. The music that underpins those vocals is punchy, driving and surprisingly intricate in places. Moreover, it's a recognisable pop construct; a song with a beginning, a middle and an end. All this and a very professional sounding mix makes me wonder why these guys aren't already famous. Just on the strength of this one track they could blow away the miserablists who currently infest the 'indie' scene.

I like music to have a bit of life about it, ya know? Middle of The Night has more than enough of that and I downloaded the EP on the strength of the few days I have spent with this excellent slice of West Coast rock at its best. There is an indentifiable California sound, and Sherwood embody that, along with some cute musical tricks and a knack at being able to put together a warm hearted, uplifting song that also has a point. I'm not sure whether I will have time to do a once over on the EP before the month is up but you can be sure I am going to be looking at these guys a lot harder. Middle of The Night, as good as it is, isn't the track to knock me on my ass but I just bet these guys have got one of those about their person and I aim to find it. In the meantime, this track will definitely do.

Highly Recommended slice of sunshine.