Perennial began as a series of guitar, keyboard, and drum loops created by Woods' frontman Jeremy Earl, serving as a form of winter night meditation. These loops became the foundation for a new collaborative songwriting process. Earl, along with bandmates Jarvis Taveniere and John Andrews, initially gathered at Earl’s house in New York before heading to Panoramic House studio in Stinson Beach, California—the same place where 2020's Strange To Explain was recorded. With the Pacific Ocean as a backdrop, the band jammed over Earl’s loops, experimenting by switching instruments and creating dozens of musical fragments. The result is 11 tracks, 4 of which are instrumental, that stay true to Woods' signature style—shimmering, familiar, yet slightly unsettling—but with Earl’s loops subtly bubbling underneath like an unseen, mysterious current. Each loop grows into something unexpected: the aching pop of “Little Black Flowers,” the ecstatic starlit groove of “Another Side,” and the Mellotron-driven dreamscape of “Between the Past.” Whether far-out or just plain comforting, tracks like the instrumental “White Winter Melody,” accented by Connor Gallaher’s pedal steel, feel like a widescreen snow globe fantasy. And let’s be honest—Perennial is 2023’s hipster parent masterpiece. Equal parts far-out psychedelia and cozy folk, it’s the soundtrack for those who want to rock a toddler to sleep while contemplating the cosmic. Hold my beer.
