"The scene isn't my scene anymore" croons
Tim Showalter on
Eraserland's inaugural track and lead single "Weird Ways." It's a sentiment that anybody with a rearview mirror can relate to, and as inward-looking as his
Strand of Oaks project has been over the last decade,
Showalter has rarely sounded as self-referential as he does on the band's seventh full-length effort. After the release of 2017's high-octane
Hard Love and the birth of his son,
Strand of Oaks drifted apart --
Showalter parses through the aftermath in great detail on the bruising
Crazy Horse-meets-
the Clash dub-rocker "Moon Landing," which features a smoldering guest solo from
Jason Isbell. It took some goading from
My Morning Jacket members
Carl Broemel,
Bo Koster,
Patrick Hallahan, and
Tom Blankenship, who also serve as the backup band, but
Showalter found his voice again, and the resulting 11-track set strikes a winning balance between dusty, soul-bearing Midwest folk and sanguine heartland rock. After declaring "I Don't Feel It Anymore" on the aforementioned "Weird Ways,"
Showalter looks deep into the abyss, assessing his place in the world from both professional ("Wild and Willing") and personal ("Keys") perspectives. Channeling
Springsteen,
Petty, and even
Joshua Tree-era
U2 at times, the record is at its best when it finds the sweet spot between classic and indie rock, as it does with great conviction on the power pop gem "Ruby" and the sprawling "Hyperspace Blues." Like all of
Showalter's work,
Eraserland seeks catharsis, but this time around it feels a little bit less aligned with the more hedonistic aspects of the journey. The nearly ten-minute, atmosphere-drenched penultimate cut "Forever Chords" -- the wordless, ambient, and even longer closer feels a tad excessive -- sums things up most succinctly: "If you believe you can be loved/You'll outlive your past/And you hope it never ends. ~ James Christopher Monger
