The last time we wrote about The Wood, they had just released their debut album, the excellent Days. The good news is that The Wood are back and their new EP is another triumph of tunes and talent.
Having whetted our appetite with the superb funk workout of Romantic Attitude over the summer, the band now give us the full EP, featuring this alongside three other tracks, released on Riverdream Records tomorrow.
The EP is further proof that The Wood should be on an unstoppable upwards trajectory anytime soon. First up is the aforementioned Cold Fire, featuring the immense vocal talent of Brooke Combe. Coincidentally, only yesterday someone had alerted me to Brooke and her Dancing At The Edge Of The World album, which blew me away. So to find her here is a marvellous piece of synchronicity.
Given that The Wood have one of the best voices around in Alex Evans, it may seem a bit cavalier to give half of the vocal duties one your lead song to someone outside of the band, but it works beautifully and evidently for The Wood, the song is the thing that matters over and above ego.
Cold Fire is a slow burn of a song, rich in soul and atmosphere. The song starts off with a simple organ and bass groove before Combe’s low croon joins in. Hers is a voice that could belong to a ’60s soul queen, with a natural rich and deep tone and incredible control, restrained and calm when needed but equally ready to soar to the heavens. When Evans joins in, we are treated to what must be two of the best voices making music today.
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Without wanting to damn The Wood with a tag of being retro (they aren’t), they do seem to excel in bring ’60s soul grooves to the modern day, full of longing, emotion and heart, as all the best soul music must be.
The next track is Romantic Attitude, a cover of a hidden gem of a song by John Fitch and the Associates, which is a perfect slice of psychedelic soul and captures that moment in time where soul and psychedelia joined hands across the cultural divide, creating some of the best music in both genres.
Discussing this song previously in Sun 13, we ventured the opinion that the song wasn’t released early summer, as it would have made an ideal soundtrack to long summer days, but I am happy to report that it is equally well suited to the darker climes of Autumn, with its fireside glows and multi-coloured walks. Special mention must be made of Steve Powell’s incredible guitar licks here that carry the latter part of the song and reinforce the ’60s psych vibe.
Hold On is a more laid back acoustic number with a country-ish flavour that gives Evans’ voice room to soar over the guitar and pedal steel. The chorus of “hold on, hold me” is particularly affecting and is easy to imagine the song being a mid set live favourite, a moment of calm amid the more lavish and upbeat numbers.
The EP finishes on a high with Wait For The Sun, a rocky number built on a like rhythm, coming that encapsulates Dr Feelgood playing a soul revue, coming across as a storming set closer. The shift in gears from track three to track four on the EP shows The Wood’s skill and dexterity, that they can change tempo and genres without it sounding jarring or dilettante like. Wait For The Sun is a mighty song that powers along and perfectly demonstrates the effectiveness of Evans and Powell’s pairing. While they are obviously great musicians in their own right, together they are greater then the sum of their parts, as the best bands are.
On the strength of the Cold Fire EP, their forthcoming second album could be one of 2026’s greatest success stories.
Watch this space.
Cold Fire is out tomorrow via Riverdream Records. Purchase Bandcamp.