Benjamin Woods is the droll-voiced songwriter and producer behind the Golden Dregs. Coming off as The National, Destroyer and Leonard Cohen holding hands (and not skipping), Woods’ delivery is comfortingly familiar, yet unsettling. It’s a voice that has a decided story to tell — one that’s deeply personal.
Hailing from the picturesque and quaint city of Truro in Cornwall, England, Woods’ music seems to follow suit in its pastorality, ambling through orchestral arrangements and thoughtful moments as the past meets the future to envelope the listener in nostalgic confusion.
As his label noted, “Benjamin hails from Cornwall — a county where thousands of tourists flock on holiday, and thousands of locals could never hope of affording one — and so he grew up with a keen awareness of that gap between idealism and reality.”
Woods began making music as the Golden Dregs in 2018, and Of Grace & Dignity — mixed and co-produced by Ali Chant (Perfume Genius, Aldous Harding) — will be his third album when it arrives in February on 4AD Records.
The pair of singles we’ve heard so far are opposites in terms of sonic environments: the heavy, musing “ American Airlines” (heard on 88Nine) leaves the latest one, “Sundown Lake,” feeling almost downright bubbly. Yet the chorus on the latter signals a lingering desire that could turn on a dime:
Are we losing touch
Or is it not our season
I don’t want for much
But I could use a reason
To go door to door
Searching for some proof
That there’s nothing more
And isn’t that the truth
You can listen to “Sundown Lake” below and pre-order Of Grace & Dignity on Bandcamp. The Golden Dregs will also be in Austin this March for SXSW if you happen to be down that way.