★★★★★
The fourth album from this Philly-based project spearheaded by Tim Showalter finds him dramatically reshaping his sound from skeletal folk-rock to a more muscular and anthemic sound on dynamic, classic rock-rooted songs with fuzzy, at times explosive guitars, atmospheric synths and cavernous drums accompanying his warm, weathered vocals and deeply personal lyrics of catharsis, healing and rebirth. 6/6/2014
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- kexp.org
2014-06-07
★★★★★
Timothy Showalter has a beard, an acoustic guitar, and a heartbreaking backstory-- on the surface, the confessional singer-songwriter start-up kit. But he'd prefer not to talk about his heavy history even if it would make you root for him. For one thing, he'd rather not relive some of the personal tragedy (a bad breakup, a house fire) that inspired his debut, Leave Ruin...
- pitchfork.com
2010-09-11
★★★★★
Sometimes my heart has to tell my brain to stop being a dick and to look at the big picture. You know, like refusing to drink tequila when you are 35 years old because of that one time in college you had too many upside down margaritas? Tequila is great, bro. Don't let that one time cloud your judgement. Apparently, in my fucked up mind releasing an outstanding single off of a to be released album is a catch 22 because it places unfair expectations upon a band and an album. The better the song....
- www.syffal.com
2014-07-17
★★★★★
Tim Showalter is probably not the Samuel R. Delany of indie rock. The latter has, with consistent genius, crossed the imagined literary border demarcating the imagined differences between the world of the science fictional, the fantastic and the speculative, and the world of the confessional, cathartic, and memoiristic...
- www.tinymixtapes.com
2014-07-15
★★★★★
On his third record, the shimmering, righteously all-caps HEAL, Timothy Showalter is on his own, listening to all his favourite musicians: Jason Molina, Sharon Van Etten and the Smashing Pumpkins. Their songs are anthemic: they're the only thing he's got, or else they're the best advice he can get his hands on. It doesn't matter, as long as they're there. They can come through his headphones or float through the air of his room...
- thequietus.com
2014-07-12
★★★★★
HEAL, Philadelphia-based mopester Timothy Showalter's third album as Strand of Oaks, is a sonic reinvention of sorts.
By definition, mopesters are raw, damaged goods, and Showalter's first two albums, Leave Ruin and Pope Kildragon, had their share of woebegone, poetic odes to failed romance and general malaise and despair. HEAL, however, takes it up a notch, both thematically and sonically...
- www.pastemagazine.com
2014-07-11
★★★★★
Strand Of Oaks' loudest and most emotionally direct album yet, HEAL, is akin to primal scream therapy, and in that context, the capitalisation of its title is entirely appropriate.
Long gone is the quiet folk and in its place is, primarily, raucous, loud, and emotional rock. Lyrically Tim Showalter (for he is Strand Of Oaks) pulls no punches in addressing his life in stark and honest terms...
- www.musicomh.com
2014-07-08
★★★★★
opinions by SAMUEL TOLZMANN < @scatlint >
Shamir, Northtown
Pop music is teenaged Las Vegas singer-songwriter-producer Shamir Bailey's oyster. His debut EP, Northtown, boasts five songs that sound like the work of the same utterly unique artistic voice without sounding much like one another, and which hearken back to very specific eras of America's musical past without losing their grip on the here and now...
- prettymuchamazing.com
2014-07-09
★★★★★
Strand Of Oaks is the record-making alter ego of Timothy Showalter, who heretofore was known for hushed acoustic records. One would never know that from the thunderous, invigorating evidence found on his new album Heal. Showalter has jacked up the musical intensity to match his fearless, often harrowing lyrics, and the results are stellar. The album opens with the .38 Special blast of "Goshen '97", a clear-eyed retrospective of Showalter's indoctrination to making music...
- www.americansongwriter.com
2014-06-26
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