I had the opportunity to listen to Avant-pop musician, Will Wood’s new album, The Normal Album via Say-10 records.

The Normal Album is a  10-track statement on normality and conformity – it doesn’t disappoint.

First song to start the album off: “Suburbia Overture/ Greeting from Mary Bell Township!/ Vampire Culture/ Love Me, Normally”. This song takes us back to the 1950’s and makes you want to start the jitterbug. As the music begins to transition between “Greetings” and “Vampire Culture”; there is a slight sense of darkness, but you are quickly pulled back into reality. This six plus minute track, shifts genres several times, giving us a sense of what to expect the rest of the album.. 

“2econd-2night-2eer (that was fun, goodbye)”, is a much different sound from the first track. Compared to the first track, this song would have had a much greater impact as the introduction of the album.  On the contrary, it would make sense why the track came second. It helps tie together and shows us the feelings on what we could expect from the rest of the album.

“Laplace’s Angel (Hurt  People? Hurt People!)”, you get the the feel of wanting to find a dance partner and do some sort of smooth dance. Then bouncing back to a more upbeat tune, similar to “Surburia Overture”,  comes the third song: “ I/ Me/ Myself”.

While, “…Well, Better than the Alternative” gave a much mellower sound/feel in contrast to the other tracks on the album;  it was perfectly placed in a way that ties the rest of the album together perfectly.

“Outliars and Hyppocrates: a fun fact about apples” brings us back to the amazing brass section from, “2econd 2ight 2eer”.  in such a simple, yet beautiful and catchy way, that makes you wonder “what else does Will have up his sleeve?!?!” “BlackBoxWarrior-OKULTRA” helped continue back on the same upbeat sound that was introduced in the beginning of the album.

“Marsha, Thankk You For the Dialectics, but I need you leave”,  tries to show us that Will was trying to make a point on mental health concerns. This was done in such way that it shows that it could be a potential in “regressive” thinking towards the psychotic profession. You could get a sense of some hypocritical feelings towards it as well. It will be interesting to see if Will says anything about this song in the future. Tied perfectly to the previous track, “Love, Me Normally “, does a wonderful job on giving the feel on what “normal” should feel like in the perfect world.

Lastly, “Memento More: the most important thing in the world”, was the perfect song to the end the album. Not only did the impact of it leave you refreshed; it left you with much more to consider and ponder. For instance, we are able to find wonderful reminders for life. These reminders include: “try not to think about it” and “ try your best to live as you like.” Above all, these statements were wonderful reminders to hear, as we don’t often hear them enough. Will also did an amazing job on ending the album on such a good note as well.

The Normal Album, gave Will Wood the opportunity to continue to show and impress with his music talent and tastes. Most importantly, it shined a much different light compared to previous albums. Will did an amazing job tying in many sounds we often don’t hear nowadays; and made something beautiful and catchy to listen to. The Normal Album, is one album that would be hard to listen to and not start dancing around your house. This album could easily be the album of the summer.

Check out The Normal Album on your favorite streaming service.

Spotify | Apple

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