It is not often in the music world that we witness a transformation quite like that of Tim Showalter, aka Strand of Oaks. Sure, you’ve got your Cloud Nothings’ Attack on Memory and your Wye Oak’s Shriek, but for the most part radical transitions in genre and ahem-quality-ahem are far and few between. Showalter’s previous albums were a type of melancholy indie folk that basked in allegory, and after nearly two years of touring and a variety of personal hardships, he eventually ended up under “a culmination of pressure.”
Like many of those that have come before him, Showalter decided to turn things around by being, well, more human. No one is real (or worth hanging out with) if they can’t make fun of themselves from time to time. And no one is real who doesn’t think about ways they could change the past, ways that they’ve been shaped, and ways that they hope to grow. Heal manages to do this for Showalter, bringing him into focus in our minds and showing off the radical, awesome, guitar-heavy change he’s undergone. By telling his own story, Showalter reminds us of our growing pains, no matter what they were. Because being a kid is tough, and if it weren’t for music like Heal, we’d forget it way too fast.
Heal