Why? - Sod In The Seed

On the title track of ‘Sod In The Seed’, the new EP from Why?, Yoni Wolf is left ruminating about never being able to shirk the “first world curse.’ And it’s a thought he’s finding hard to shake, setting the tone for this typically confessional, charming and nonchalant six song EP.

While it’s pleasingly hard to categorise Why? this EP has all the elements that makes them great. Wolf shares his none more witty existential musings through his languid vocal delivery over loose, swaying rhythms. The folksy jangle and tropical melodies and sunshine choruses betray Wolf’s self-doubt and self-deprecating observations. The good news is he’s as sharp as ever, unloading on seemingly many things he’s been bottling up since Eskimo Snow.

The title track’s a wordy flow of mile-a-minute witticisms on minor fame, empathy and the necessity of making money off your art over a metronomic groove (‘I make decent cash / I’m a minor star / And we can’t last if she don’t drive a hybrid car’).

‘For Someone’ rolls out finding Wolf ‘lying on the beach like a slow sucking leech, waiting for someone,’ over twinkling djembe and the hushed synths of the swooning, swaying chorus. Then there’s the languid, loose rhythms of ‘The Plan’ with its wistful air while ‘Probable Cause’ highlights Wolf’s wit and storytelling as he tells his life story to a “state trooper guy on the Pennsylvania turnpike,” before it’s gone in just over a minute.

Finally, over comically doom-laden ‘Bom bom bom’ backing vocals on ‘Shag Carpet’ he tells of some of ‘the putrid things I’ve done simply for my pleasure;’ he’s not happy ‘with this heavy chest I can’t rest,’ before finally asking ‘Why I am alone?’

These tracks show a band full of invention, confidence and the knowledge of what makes them so unique. It all bodes very well for the full-length album ‘Mumps, etc’.