Listen to Cold In The Morning by The Hundred Acre Woods via Property Of Zack
I’ve been enjoying the new Cold In The Morning EP from Philly DIY scene folkies The Hundred Acre Woods since an advance copy showed up at The Key a couple weeks back, so it was a treat to see it getting an early stream via Property of Zack yesterday afternoon. The band is a bit of an anomaly in some ways – its plays basement shows and goes on tour with raucous rockers Modern Baseball, but its sound is far from amplified. Cold is a tight three-song set of jangling acoustic pop with rousing gang vocal choruses and a touch of banjo. “City Lights” recalls the chamber-emo tones of Matt Pond PA’s Emblems, while “Loose Parts” is beautifully harmonized with a spry, percussive strum. The best thing about these guys – it never feels like they’re doing the acoustic urban folk thing in an opportunistic trend-chasing post-Lumineers way. There’s no kitsch about The Hundred Acre Woods, no baby boomer-baiting Dylan-isms. They don’t wear derby hats or suspenders, their vocals are decidedly un-raspy. They’re just five dudes writing solid pop songs and it happens that this is instrumentation and an aesthetic that works really well with the music they make. Stream Cold in the Morning here, and watch a live acoustic video of The Hundred Acre Woods performing in a basement last fall via Big Footprints Records below.