Wooden Stars - "Orphans"

Math can seem ugly, there's no doubt about it. As some of you will know from having done your Ph.D. in number theory and others from having frustratingly grappled with long division in grade school, an intractable problem can appear as an otherworldly and chaotic mess. Yet it is exactly that sort of problem that, when solved, is most beautiful - suddenly, inexplicably grasped by our mind as an organized whole. The same can be said of the Wooden Stars, whose music displays an almost ugly precision and technicality that is also, when heard more deeply, the source of its surpassing beauty. Listen to the individual parts (guitars thoroughly intertwined, vocal harmonies constantly fluctuating, as bizarre as they are persistent, etc.) and you will be impressed, though perhaps left cold; but back up, take a broader listen, and something else will emerge: a simple, sour loveliness, the only route to which involves a good deal of difficulty.

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