Chris Wood is an English Folk musician, active since the early 90s.
- None the Wiser
Tropes which apply to him and his work are as follows:
- Cover Version: Quite a few. A notable one being his version of the English patriotic song "Jerusalem", which, according to the liner notes, he sung "as if the person asking the questions knows that the answer is no".
- Darker and Edgier: The album None the Wiser, which is implicitly about the effects of the 2008 financial crisis, qualifies.
- Disposable Sex Worker: Implicitly referenced with the character of Svetlana in "So Much to Defend", who's "always carrying something sharp, and always something blunt", presumably to prevent herself being disposed of.
- Drives Like Crazy: Luke from "Only a Friendly".
- Empty Nest: The point of "This Love Won't Let You Fail".
- Folk Music: Obviously.
- Hollywood Atheist: "You May Stand Mute" is something of a skewering of the idea that atheists don't care about anything. "You may stand mute / while others choose / to praise the stars above / but none dispute / the desert of / a life lived without love". At the same time it also goes after the atheists who hate religion for no reason.
- Humans Are Bastards / Humans Are the Real Monsters: "The Wolfless Years", the last track on the Album None the Wiser, compares humanity before the 2008 financial crisis to the deer in Yellowstone National Park when the wolves were removed, implying that we almost deserve the problems the crisis caused. Also from the title track of None the Wiser, "To the masters of the universe we are naught but fertilizer / what kind of beast is man / I am none the wiser"
- I Was Young and Needed the Money: From None the Wiser: "Someone's daughter's selling phone sex / just to pay her student loan back"
- Parental Marriage Veto: The narrator trying to get round this is the point of "The Handweaver and the Factory Maid"
- Protest Song: Most notably "Hollow Point", about the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes, but also any number of songs from None the Wiser and So Much to Defend.
- Slice of Life: Quite often, but the most obvious examples being the title tracks from the albums None the Wiser and So Much to Defend.
- Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: Tends towards the cynical side, especially on later albums.
