“I gotta get my shit together before I’m forty.” That about sums up the new album from Strand of Oaks, which features members from My Morning Jacket. Jason Isbell plays guitar on the album, too, and his wife is there on the violin. In truth Eraserland sounds a lot like these contributors. In all the best ways.
It is alternately cosmic and soaring, and quiet and introspective. The lyrics are sometimes obtuse and other times deeply insightful. The songs range from 4-minute singles to 9-minute opuses.
“Forever Chords” is the sum of this album: Creeping, sweeping, huge and intimate, it begins with the lines, “The more that you hear it, the more that you don’t. The lesson is try it, the fear is you won’t…”
I can’t think of single reason why you shouldn’t buy this album immediately and listen to it over and over again.
