New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Willodean's Awesome Life Decisions: Side One is sure to be 2017's breakup album for the modern introvert. The six-song EP is the first of four to be released in 2017.
The Los Angeles-based trio combines indie-rock, power-pop, and American roots music with beautiful arrangements and crystalline studio sound. Their music echoes the melodic smarts of Sufjan
Stevens and packs the instrumental punch of a band like Wilco.
Willodean's unique sound derives from the diverse musical backgrounds of its three members: the southern roots of front man Abbie Huxley, the smart, McCartney-esque songwriting of Randy Wooten, and the indie rock edge of producer/bass player Eric Holden.
Awesome Life Decisions: Side One showcases the band's appreciation for pop melodies and guitar muscle. Self-produced and recorded in-house, the EP will be released by Bigger Better More Records, a label created by the band's bass player and producer, Eric Holden.
This band is a continuation of the decade long partnership between
Holden and Wooten. Together, they formed their previous band, The Bloody Lovelies, and created their own record label, Cheap Lullaby Records. Their record label went on to sign more than a dozen acts and release over 30 records for artists such as The BellRays, Joan As
Police Woman, Ivan & Alyosha, Teitur, and
David Mead. Today, they blend their modern DIY production aesthetic and sharp, lyric-based songwriting with Huxley's Tennessee grit to form Willodean.
Willodean's Awesome Life Decisions: Side One kicks off with "Oh Well" -
She's a bottle of blond who's breaking my heart
I'm a bottle shy of falling apart
I can see her or not, either way it ruins my day
She's a mess of hair, religion and s*x
I'm a mess of a man who likes to think he's complex
But I'm not so I pose while I drink like I got something to say
Wooten's songwriting paints characters in detail, bringing to light the interior stories of people who are somehow already familiar to us. His musings on the complexities of life get wrapped up in a pretty power-pop package that you could happily listen to on repeat for months - at which point, of course, the next Willodean EP will be hitting the shelves.