Album Review: Strand Of Oaks – Eraserland (Dead Oceans)

Strand Of Oaks’ Timothy Showalter teams up with the members of My Morning Jacket and the result is a stunning journey from the depths of despair to a new-found emotional high.

At the end of touring to promote his previous album, 2017’s Hard Love, Showalter was considering packing it all in. He felt he let down both himself and his audience. But then his friend Carl Broemel called.

Carl plays guitar for My Morning Jacket. And as it turned out, the bandmembers, excluding leader Jim Jones had some time off. So Carl made a proposition to Tim. If he could get himself together, they had three weeks booked in a studio in Louisville, ready for him.

Problem was, because of his depression, Showalter hadn’t been writing.

Rather than throw in the towel, Tim pulled himself together. He retreated to New Jersey, of all places…hunkering down in a small house on the beach in the middle of winter, waiting to see if anything would happen.

It did.

A few weeks later Timothy Showalter emerged with ten new songs and a band ready to bring them to life.

Eraserland is the result, and in my humble opinion, it’s the finest Strand Of Oaks album yet and will almost certainly be ranking in my top 10 at the end of the year.

Opening song, Weird Ways, begins at that low point. “I don’t feel it anymore”, Showalter sings, accompanied by his own acoustic guitar. But as the song proceeds, each member of the band comes in one by one, Broemel’s guitar, then Bo Koster’s keyboards, then Patrick Hallahan’s bass and finally, Tom Blackenship’s bass until the full band kicks in, pushing Tim, urging him on. By the end of the 5 minute track it feels like Showalter has been reborn as Broemel’s guitar soars.

It’s a magnificent sound…but the best is yet to come.

Hyperspace Blues is next beginning with a Bonham-like drum intro, but then followed by sleek, eighties synths, a strange meeting between Led Zeppelin and A Flock Of Seagulls. But it works.

The following two songs take the listener back into the darkness.

“I get lonely…I erase”, Tim sings on the autobiographical Keys, as he imagines himself and his partner running away from their current lives…”You’ll get a new job and I might lose some weight”. It’s a heartbreakingly beautiful love song.

Visions is the darkest moment on the album as Showalter faces his depression head-on. “If I were you I’d stay the hell away from me”, he warns, and alluding to his previous album, “2017 tried its best to take the magic from me”.

But it’s obvious that the magic is still here as the second half of the album builds from one great song to the next.

Final Fires comes as a breath of fresh air after Visions and Moon Landing features guest guitarist Jason Isbell shredding as you’ve never heard him. The track just bristles with energy. “It’s OK to be happy”, the singer concedes.

Indeed, he sounds downright joyful on Ruby, the catchiest song Showalter has written. “If you wanna live, then live with me”, he sings.

Then it’s just guitar and voice as Wild And Willing takes the energy level down, but not the intensity.

The title track sounds like the glorious send-off this album deserves…a fantastic tune…but Tim’s got one last card up his sleeve.

Clocking in at almost 10 minutes, Forever Chords is epic in every way possible. Comprised of just two chords, the song at once evokes Ummagumma-era Pink Floyd, Bends-era Radiohead and Neil Young’s American Stars And Bars.

The triumphant tune just goes on and on but never gets old. In fact, I could have easily listened to a version twice as long.

“If you believe you can be loved, you’ll outlive your past and hope it never ends”.

After hearing Eraserland, you’ll hope it never ends.

Marty Duda