Scott Woodward - Wasteland EP

Scott Woodward

​Wasteland EP
self-released; 2016

3.4 out of 5

By Ted Rogen

Scott Woodward is a singer/songwriter from  the UK. He recently released a three-song EP entitled 2.Wasteland. It revolves around his vocals and guitar with a couple of synths thrown in the mix.

Woodward mentions Bowie, Scott Walker, Dylan, Neil Young, Suede, Pulp and Richard Hawley as influences on the album. Out of those artists you can clearly hear three of them in his vocal delivery. The most obvious is Bowie which is undeniable. You can also hear Scott Walker as well as Jarvis Cocker in there as well.

The guitar playing is simple revolving around mostly major and minor chords. By itself the guitar isn’t anything to write home about but luckily his vocals are the main ingredient in the these songs. 

He opens with “Descending” which is the arguable highlight. The synth incorporated is a nice touch but I would have liked it to be even more subtle with the guitar a bit louder. Woodward hits the right notes singing but the song doesn’t have much of a hook. During the verse it almost sounds as if he's talking at points. Overall, the song is solid but I would have liked to hear it fleshed out with more instrumentation. “Wasteland” is another solid effort. This song is begging for drums or some more instrumentation by the one-minute mark. The song is a little more catchy than the opener but takes a number of listens to sink in. 

“Curtain Call’ closes the album which contains some effective vocal harmonies. Not every vocal phrasing works perfectly but most of it does. 

​Woodward has some talent as a songwriter. The songs are enjoyable but in my opinion Woodward is going to have to up his game as far the music goes in order to be competitive with popular acts. Unfortunately strumming a couple of chords just doesn't cut it today in such an oversaturated playground of accomplished musicians.

Perhaps Woodward has some phenomenal guitar skills but he just didn’t display them here. If that's not the case he may want to consider working with other musicians or over dubbing other instrumentation to make the songs more dynamic and layered.

Overall, this is EP that builds a foundation but wonder if his best material is going to be sometime in the future.

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