Eraserland. Strand of Oaks

And here's part 3 of a series of short reviews published on this day.

Strand of Oaks is no stranger to these pages. Since 2012 its albums have come by and always in a favourable way. With Eraserland for the first time I had the idea that I had heard this music before. Not in a literal sense of course. Timothy Showalter has produced ten new songs. Yet somehow I can not really find myself in them. At the same time I am not convinced yet that I will not find my way here in the end, if I give the album a few more chances. Something I will do as I liked Strand of Oaks in the past.

Is there a concrete reason for my hesitation? Yes, it lies in the bombast of the two opening songs. There's no room left to discover or find anything in there. 'Weird Ways' and 'Hyperspace Blues' are like a steamroller rolling over me at full speed and unlike Kevin Kline's character in 'A Fish Called Wanda' there's no recovery for me it seems. The same effect The War on Drugs mostly has on me: too much of a good thing. The steam does come off with 'Keys', but that song somehow sounds too familiar. Hence I stopped sort of listening, having (granted, voluntarily wanting) to listen to so many new albums. Hence this short piece. As some people have written this to be a masterpiece, I am going to come back to Eraserland over the time. Should things chance between us, I'll let you know.

Wo.

You can buy Eraserland here:

https://strandofoaks.bandcamp.com/album/eraserland


or listen to our Spotify Playlist to find out what we are writing about:

https://open.spotify.com/user/glazu53/playlist/6R9FgPd2btrMuMaIrYeCh6?si=KI6LzLaAS5K-wsez5oSO2g