Customer Reviews

Wood/Water

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I cannot believe how many negative reviews I have read about this album, arguably one of the best emo albums of all-time. The Promise Ring broke up because of people who just couldn't accept their change in sound. This entire album came about from their lead singer being diagnosed with brain cancer, overcoming the cancer, and then feeling more introspective with his songwriting. These songs reflect a range of emotions, from actualizing your own death to cherishing every second of life. The lyrics are amazing, the orchestration is miraculous, and WOOD/WATER is an amazing album.

I respect the Promise Ring for making a concerted effort to remove themselves from the current "emo" sound. Most bands would attribute this to "maturing" or "evolving". To me, when a band says they've matured or evolved it's usually a bad thing. The Get Up Kids for instance, just stopped rocking. They don't sound like the band I was into 5 years ago. But the 'Ring embraced change, stated that and didn't try to tiptoe around it.
That being said, the album is full of great "rock" songs...most are mellow and chill. It's literally like they went from little hyper-happy kids to chilled out happy grownups.

Granted it's not *exactly* like their old stuff, but take it on it's own--it's a great album.

It has been 3 years since the Promise Ring's last album, Very Emergency. In that span of time the Promise Ring has changed lineups, completely refined their sound, and created Wood/Water, possibly the best album of their career.

Wood/Water is the antithesis of Very Emergency. The Promise Ring trades in the straight-forward rock stylings of their previous albums for more complex, laidback material with Wood/Water. The result is complete success. On the album the band experiments with keyboards and other effects, creating playful, textured melodies that are reminiscent of British bands like Travis and Coldplay. Trust me, this is a good thing. The first single "Stop Playing Guitar" is proof that the Promise Ring can still make that one song that you can never get out of your head. With a rousing "yeah, yeah" chorus and a gorgeous lead guitar riff courtesy of Jason Gnewikow, "Stop Playing Guitar" is sure to please any Promise Ring fan. Songs like "Bread & Coffee," "Half Year Sun," and "My Life is at Home" display a new sense of songwriting maturity that has only been hinted at before. They include some of Davey's best and most heartfelt lyrics to date sung in his breathy, hushed tone. "Become Anything One Time" is the standout track. The melody is top notch with a muted guitar lead throughout the verse that just tickles the listener's spine.

With Wood/Water the Promise Ring reclaim their throne at the top of the indie rock world. Wood/Water picks up where "Nothing Feels Good" left off, containing some of the best indie-pop songs you will ever hear. As a long time Promise Ring fan, take my word, do not hesitate, and go buy this album. It is well worth it.

Sometime in the last few years an amazing thing happened to me. I woke up to find myself married and with a small child. To my surprise and utter horror, I grew up.

This has been a difficult thing to reconcile with my musical tastes. I have found many of the bands I had love affairs with are no longer relevant to my life. Its hard for me to connect to a band of 30 year old men singing about going on first dates or young girls and boys whining about getting dumped. I am far from that place.

Just when I thought I was truly relegated to alt country alone, this album comes my way. All the old feelings of love and affection I have had toward the Promise Ring are renewed in an album that sounds like it was written and performed by someone my age for someone my age!

As I expected to read, they are getting a lot of flack from the fans. Don't believe a word of it. Wood/Water is a beautifully constructed album. This album is filled with the wonderfully familiar and comfortable Davey von Bohlen lyrics I grew up to. Stop Playing Guitar is a introspective song about taking stock of your accomplishments and appreciating your surroundings. My Life Is At Home is a subtle love song that never fails to make me think of my husband and daughter. To sum it up, Wood/Water is the soundtrack to a gorgeous Spring Saturday afternoon.

What can I say, when I heard several tracks from this album on the ANTI website a while back I was really disappointed. When I finally got the CD, I listened through and was fairly bored. I considered just about all the songs pretty sappy and weak, and perhaps even unoriginal. At first listen, the album, so much different from their last three, wasn't holding up.

So why 5 stars? Because I can't stop listening to it! Despite my complaints, it's in my CD player as we speak. The reason? Although Wood/Water is so awfully incomparable to TPR's others, they all have something in common: there is some quality in the music that makes it grow on you. Maybe it's Davey's vocals and lyrics, or quite possibly something far beyond explanation. But whatever it is, it has pulled me in, and I find this CD, like the last three, to be very enjoyable.

It's hard to say who *should* get this CD, with the exception of TPR fans, since this sort of music can't simply be thrown into a category. If you're willing to take a chance with Wood/Water, you may find it to be quite rewarding.

Probably the first thing that comes to mind when considering Wood/Water is that it's 'different.' And it is. They've strayed from the upbeat and poppy songs of Very Emergency, but the songs are still catchy. They all tend to be slower and mellower, which makes for a great album to listen to all the way through, again and again (played it 3 times in a row the first time I got it....). There's a lot of good backup vocals on it as well that really enhance the songs. 'Letters to the Far Reaches' is probably the only song that I don't enjoy.

I first heard 'Stop Playing Guitar' and 'Say Goodbye Good', and I think they're the 2 instantly catchy songs that sound like what you would expect them to play. Personal favorites include 'Become One Anything One Time', 'Half Year Sun', and 'Bread & Coffee'.

Superb. An album of incredible depth and warmth. Too good for words, and Very much under-appreciated.

Great disc. I have no idea what the complaints are about. Bands change, and for some reason some people don't. This album shows us the same raw yet warm sound as before, with a little better composition. Don't get me wrong, the old material is great, but with songs like 'Stop Playing Guitar' this band has really found a compfortable unique sound that is quite easily listenable. Sold out is a term we shouldn't throw arround. Reserve it for bands who release albums on money not music. Progression: it happens. The Promise Ring have matured, and it sounds like some need to follow suit. The Promise Ring are still in my eyes everything a sell out isn't and Wood/Water remains one of my favourite discs.

So it screams of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. SO WHAT??? Fact is, this is the best Promise Ring record, hands-down. And I own 30 Degrees Everywhere, Nothing Feels Good and Very Emergency. Until Wood/Water, 30 Degrees was my favorite Promise Ring full-length, but I dug all three. You have to appreciate all of their records for different reasons. Emo kids still cream themselves about Nothing Feels Good, but the fact of the matter is that it's the only Promise Ring record that sounds like Nothing Feels Good. All of their stuff sounds different. Style-wise, 30 Degrees and Nothing Feels Good are probably closest, but the production values are very different. Very Emergency, which was called the Promise Ring's "sell-out pop" record retains the same sound as Nothing Feels Good, but the album was mostly well-crafted pop songs rather than abstract, droning emo tunes. Now, I have always believed that it takes more talent to create the perfect pop record (not glossy radio pop, mind you) than it takes to make a 70 minute long barrage of sounds. Technicality aside, Very Emergency was a record that, had it come 2 years later, could have been a huge hit, what with Jimmy Eat World, Dashboard Confessional and Saves the Day making it on to mainstream rock radio. I won't mention the ol' Dashboard, but with the other two acts, they both got attention because of their original yet quirky pop music. The Promise Ring is a band that is just as, if not more talented than any of these acts but for some reason gets a ton of [stuff] from everybody for "selling out." The Promise Ring didn't sell out. The Promise Ring deserves nothing less than the same accolades afforded to the previously mentioned bands for throwing away pretentions and crafting two beautiful pop records in a row. Seeing them last summer opening for Jimmy Eat World was an utterly bittersweet experience. I was overjoyed that I was finally seeing the Promise Ring, and seeing them play in front of so many kids made me infinitely happy. The crowd reaction they got, though, was less than stellar, as all of the "emo" faithful booed the new songs and were only happy when they played "Red and Blue Jeans" off of Nothing Feels Good. The songs off of Very Emergency and Wood/Water got no reaction because either people didn't know them (as most of the 14 year old girls were there just to hear "The Middle" and "Sweetness") or didn't like them. It's a shame that the Promise Ring broke up almost directly after this record because it's so GOOD. Yeah, I like alt-country acts such as Wilco and Ryan Adams. But I like these acts for the same reason I like most music that I like, and that is the ability to create and perform quality songs. Fact is, this album is ten thousand times more ambitious than anything the Promise Ring had done before because the Promise Ring were never a band to rest on their laurels. They made an emo record when they felt like it. They made a bouncy pop record when they felt like it. And with Wood/Water, they create a somewhat somber, reflective and utterly satisfying record that, if it has to stand as a final testament to their career's worth of music, so be it. I think it's well-representative of the Promise Ring's career, because it's a record that is both underappreciated and unlike anything else they've ever done. The Promise Ring deserves posthumous accolades. Will you be the ones to give it to them?

Ok, first listen left me a little dissapointed - this record is NOT as immediate as previous TPR efforts, but equally as rewarding and enjoyable..given time..
Much in the same way that the Get Up Kids new album is a step away from their 'punkier' roots, so Wood/Water demonstrates how the Promise Ring have grown whilst still retaining the honesty of their earlier efforts. Buy this album, put it on repeat and sit back and relax. the songs are great, just give them time...