LA-based Woolf and the Wondershow debuted their first single barely a month ago, garnering six-figure SoundCloud attention for their galloping, discoesque number “Cloak.” Recently, they unleashed “Cages,” a boisterous, theatrical synth-pop cut that turns that gallop into a stage-ready tsunami of emotion.
The four-minute “Cages” has about five acts, but the quasi-enigmatic Woolf never makes us feel like we’re here for some pieced-together medley.
What does happen, though, is that the duo put us through the ringer, taking us from tender and quiet moments with chamber orchestrations and popping drum machines up mountains to screaming vantage points with blisteringly insane fuzzy synths and triumphant vocal turns.
Over the course of the song, I got to thinking about the concept of the cage. Sometimes we place ourselves in emotional or psychological cages, and sometimes people do the work for us. Either way, the song offers us an opportunity to deal with whatever situation we find ourselves.
While it’s not the tempered dance backdrop of their debut, “Cages” offers us a rewarding, explosive experience that will leave listeners wondering just what the hell else there is to expect in this unpredictable Wondershow.
