Woods Share Surprise ‘Five More Flowers’ EP, Feat. Hopeful Lead Single “Lay With Luck”

Though its April Fools Day announcement may have made fans think twice, Brooklyn’s Woods do, in fact, have a surprise new record out. The psych-folk-rock outfit released their Five More Flowers EP via their own Woodsist label this week ahead of a North American tour alongside Animal Collective’s Avey Tare.

The roots of Five More Flowers touch much of Woods’ recent output: The band’s Jeremy Earl, Jarvis Taveniere and John Andrews wrote and recorded the songs that would make up the new EP at the Panoramic House in Stinson Beach, California, where they had previously held sessions for their 2020 album Strange to Explain, as well as their 2023 album Perennial—hence its title, Five More Flowers.

One of the finest of those flowers is lead single “Lay With Luck,” a slinky groove driven by a psychedelic synth figure, shuffling drums and a lurching bass line. The pairing of liquid-mercury electronics and Earl’s breathy vocals evoke late-2000s indie-pop stars Miike Snow, while lyrically, the track considers the resilience necessary for hope to endure: “Can you hold and wait for the spark that will light it up for you?”

Elsewhere on the record, “Lay With Luck” segues into dreamy instrumental interlude “Stinson Morning,” evoking the idyllic setting of Five More Flowers’ recording, while “Day Before Your Night” and “Face the Dawn” are similarly sunny in focus. And closer “Fall Away For Years” is as replete with hooks as any of the EP’s offerings, building to a hypnotic refrain framed by synth squiggles and body-shaking percussion.

Woods will support their new release starting this Friday, April 5, at Colony in Woodstock, New York, one of their nine upcoming shows with Avey Tare—at their April 13 stop at Knockdown Center in Queens, New York, they’ll also be joined by Natural Information Society and Laraaji. Later in the year, Woods will share a bill with Waxahatchee in Vancouver, Portland and Seattle on Aug. 16, 17 and 18, respectively.

Listen to the Five More Flowers EP here and find Woods’ tour dates down below our Fresh Squeeze playlist.

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