Wooden Horse
Album: This Kind Of Trouble
Label: Self Released
Tracks: 11
Website: http://www.woodenhorsemusic.co.uk/

In football they often talk about a game changer an incident or event that changes a course of a match, I'm finding "This Kind Of Trouble" to be a real mood changer. If you're having, 'one of those days' just take a bit of time out, stick on the latest from Wooden Horse and kick back for half an hour or so. Whilst it won't necessarily make everything better, you'll feel good for it.

If "This Kind Of Trouble" only did that, it would make it a very worthy album, but there is a lot more to it than it's spirit building, life affirming qualities, which is never a bad thing. Their previous album, "What Comes Around", showed the band to be a duo with a rich vein of songs, well this album appears to have hit the mother lode.

More bluesy and seemingly incorporating a little more of a swing thing as well as feeling less aggressive than the previous cut, the new album the new album seems to be more thoughtful and more reflective than the last album, almost as if Wooden Horse have moved from angry reaction to a more contemplative approach to issues.

The result is an album that feels like it packs more of a punch because it targets them more effectively and that's true of both the personal and bigger issue songs. Wooden Horse have really got under skin and are rubbing at raw nerves, but they are doing it in sympathetic way, one that knows you've got to be cruel to be kind and that fault can sometimes be a two way road.

If that all sounds a bit heavy, far from it, they wrapped the songs in a good variation of pace and swing which ensures that there is always something happening to give the album a bit of a lift a touch of pizzazz this is a blues album from the old school, full of spirit and more than happy setting the soul to rights.

Neil King