You never quite know when, where, or how new music by Natural Child will resurface, but you can count on it sounding just different enough to surprise, familiar enough to feel like home, and always worth the wait. In the eleven new tracks on the Wooden LP, the neo-psychedelic rock band from Nashville once again proves that nobody balances loose grooves and razor-sharp songwriting quite like they do.
This latest trip opens in remarkably mellow territory (it doesn’t get more easygoing than opener It’s Been A Long Time), drifting through sun-faded yacht rock, Laurel Canyon warmth and breezy country-rock with the effortless charm of musicians who know exactly how to let songs breathe. But halfway through, after an amazing guitar eruption (in the instrumental Good Morning Troops), the album gradually gets dirt back under its fingernails (Biloxi Blues is classic Natural Child). The boogie turns greasier, the riffs tougher and the rhythm section starts swinging harder. Still, even at its most ragged, the album never loses its laid-back spirit.
So yeah, Natural Child delivers once again: scruffy, endlessly groovy, and completely unconcerned with trends. Seventies warmth wrapped in ragged rock energy, good-time rock ‘n’ roll played by a band that genuinely loves the craft and knows how to seduce an audience.
Wooden is out streaming and on vinyl LP (self-released).