Reviews of Woodland Echoes

The reviews for Woodland Echoes have been great and it has a fantastic 83% score on Metacritic and is ranked by them as #82 in the albums of 2017, not to mention débuting at 28 on the UK Official Album Chart midweek update.

★★★★★ “A classic pop songwriter back at his very best”
Album of the Week, The Sunday Express

9 / 10 “Listening … on a pair of headphones with the world’s distractions (temporarily) at bay is a great way to experience the sensation that Woodland Echoes conveys, and perhaps its ultimate goal: to transport the listener to a better world, and a more beautiful and hopeful one.”
PopMatters.com

★★★★ The much-missed and well-adored English tunesmith and troubadour is definitely back, with a reinvigorated lyrical candor and musical splendor
CrypticRock.com

92% “Hard not to be swept along on a wave of shameless delight”
Album Choice, Hi-Fi News

★★★★ “The world of pop music always needs music this smart, tuneful, and unabashedly romantic”
AllMusic.com

★★★★ “A masterful return to the pop fray after far too long away”
Classic Pop Magazine

★★★★ “A fine collection of tuneful guitar pop”
The Mail on Sunday

★★★★ “Driven by his love of the natural world, there are snippets of birdsong and the countryside wrapped around some classic pop tunes that call to mind Teenage Fanclub and the Beatles”
Scottish Daily Express

★★★★ “Woodland Echoes is an unhurried album full of paeans to passion and nature. Like his best solo work, his unmistakable Englishness is presented through an Americana filter”
Mojo

4 / 5 “This is a classic pop songwriter in the XTC or Prefab Sprout vein back at his very best with clever lyrics and melodies that are sweet and simple”
Buzz.ie

8 / 10 “An aural dose of Vitamin D that’s the perfect summer soundtrack”
Long Live Vinyl

★★★★ “With meandering pop melodies that draw influence at times from Nashville, the Lennon and McCartney song book and west coast melancholia, there is an easy charm to the whole project that lends it a robust confidence… This sunny collection is perfectly pitched for a lazy afternoon”
Record Collector

8 / 10 “’Baby Blue Sky’ and the idyllic ‘Perfect Sunday Sun’ invoke Teenage Fanclub; the ragtime guitar of ‘Who?’ and the jazz waltz ‘Love Is the Key By the Sea’ recalls Beck but it’s Paul McCartney whom Heyward most resembles throughout – both his cooing tenor voice and his impressive way with a smart chord change.”
Uncut

★★★ “Pop at its most impervious to passing trends… like a nature-lover’s remix of The Jam’s romantic ‘English Rose’”
The Observer

★★★ “Elegant, subtle and with uplifting lyrics conveying the wonder of finding inner peace”
The Mirror

Such a beautiful open hearted and optimistic record. I thought it was superb, great songcraft. It reminds me of The Beatles, Big Star and Teenage Fanclub. Just really great melodic summery songwriting.”
Steve Harnell, Editor, Classic Pop Magazine

“One of the architects of the 1980s pop explosion. The good part of it – with the whacking choruses, wry lyrics and great hair… Woodland Echoes is a thrilling selection of soulful pop-rock songs… Heyward couldn’t write a bad song if he tried”
The Monocle

“Woodland Echoes represents the masterful culmination of the last ten years of Nick Heyward’s solo career, drawing together the strength of his expertly crafted songwriting and gifted lyricism in what is one of the most captivating releases of the year”
HMV Recommended

“Musically, he hops from the pastoral, McCartney-like ‘Love Is the Key by the Sea’ to rootsy hoedowns, bluesy ballads, Byrdsy Rock and, on ‘Who?’, brassy swing. What holds it together is a sense that, at 56, the former pin-up can do as he pleases”
The Sunday Times

“This is a sweet adventure, gentle strength its backbone”
Just Listen to This

“A real feel good, beautifully written album”
I Don’t Hear a Single

“A songwriter of the highest order”
Louder than War

“Little bits of magic that help me feel better as I go about the humdrum of every day”
Shane Marais

“An absolute breath of fresh air in this “same old-same old” music world”
@nockernaughton

“Nick doing what Nick does better than most, making beautifully crafted little slices of credible pop perfection, utterly utterly sublime!!”
Dale Gothfather, PledgeMusic

“Brimming with life, nature and beauty… An absolute antidote to all the bad news in the world”
Richard Batchelor, PledgeMusic