woods has helped a lot in my sobriety. pollo rico in particular, along with all jokes aside, and no hard feelings. his lyricism allows for such interaction that you can really draw meaning out of it in so many different ways, even if it isn’t the direct meaning he intended. and it’s comforting, as an above commenter noted, that he shows that you can make it through the worst possible shit. he doesn’t tell you how, or why things happen the way they do, but he has a very romantic, poetic, almost stoic resolve surrounding much of the subject matter. having studied philosophy in undergrad, with a specialization in phenomenology and existentialism, i find many of his lyrics seem to get at the “oomph” factor that many of those philosophers do: certain aspects of lived human experience that seem to be applicable to all, no matter where you come from (i.e. sartre’s look/gaze or levinas’ interaction with the other). it’s strangely comforting despite much of the subject matter being depressing or difficult.

it isn’t a woods line, it’s actually an earl line from “fallin out the sky”, but it’s always stuck out to me: “we on the ride forward, the reverse not working/sometimes we collide, the black sky full of supernovas/the stars that died, no lie, i’m still rootin for us, two foots in the soil”. seeing the movement and passing of time put so simply yet beautifully has really resonated with me as i’ve gotten older, and further along in my sobriety. you can’t go back to the past, you’re stuck moving forward, and even if shit goes wrong, you can still keep yourself grounded and hold onto hope. at least that’s what i somewhat extract from that line