West Texas trio Oakwood’s long-awaited debut album ‘Blurred Away’ brings 2010s emo to a mature place, with a healthy dose of nostalgia and reflection.
Stream: ‘Blurred Away’ – Oakwood
All anyone wants is consistency, right?
As times change and years trudge on, any person can be left wondering if their current disposition is the one that they’re going to be in for the rest of their life.
As the years catch up, there may be a desire to settle in and find some stability. A never-ending search for answers is the driving theme throughout Austin band Oakwood’s debut full-length Blurred Away, which makes for a compelling screamo record that stands alongside 4th wave emo favorites like Snowing, Touché Amoré, and Marietta.
With their first release in over a decade, the band ponders many of the same themes: Depression, loneliness, and coming-of-age. Unlike earlier songs, the band’s lyrics tend to skew more into questions than declarative statements. There’s wondering when you’ll get past the hard feelings rather than just wallowing. Yes, there is the question of permanence, which tends to jump out when it appears throughout the record, especially in the closing lines:
Does this ever get better,
or is it permanent?
Will my heart bleed forever?
Cause I think it’s permanent
I fear it’s permanent
Still, I feel that there’s some acceptance and peace at points in the record, and it wallows less than on their past lines. In a recent interview on Jeremy Bolm’s First Ever Podcast, bassist and lyricist Mathew Dwyer spoke about how revisiting some of the old material brought up some of the feelings that he felt when he wrote those lyrics first. It sounded like he’s in a much better headspace now, and maybe that’s why there’s some underlying sense of hope in those lines.
While early in the album, “A Tangled Mess” starts with the question “Where’s the optimist in me?” – a question that finds its answer by the time the band reach “Serpentine.” Dwyer might scream like he’s fraying at the ends, but there’s solace as he screams,
You are miles and days away
from your old life
No point living in the past
Another season promises
sun to thaw the ice
Many highlights come in Blurred Away’s back-half like “The Deepest Green,” where Dwyer sings probably the cleanest on the album. The song is partially a reflection on change, but it’s also something of a love song. He sings, “I belong to you eternally” and “You’re the deepest green that I’ve known.” It could just as easily be a platonic relationship as a romantic one, examining how through time, there may be ebbs and flows, but some things remain constant. That’s another song where he asks, “Are we permanent, carved in stone?”
It’s impossible to discuss Oakwood without getting into their unlikely success story. The Austin-based three-piece were a local band from the Odessa and Midlands areas of Texas. Once the band opted to re-upload their songs to streaming services, the band unexpectedly found a new audience and set out on a comeback tour that sold out completely. As a new generation craved that 2010s twinkling sound, Oakwood’s take on the sound (especially their song “I’m Still Cheering for the 1980 U.S. Hockey Team”) resonated with kids just getting into the scene. Now over 10 years since their Summer EP, Blurred Away is their debut album. While the band’s throat-shredding vocals and tapped out guitars have remained, the sound is much crisper thanks to production and mastering from Phillip Odom and Will Yip.
With that knowledge, it makes the questions about permanence and reflections on youth feel more pertinent. In that interview, Dwyer spoke about how surreal it’s been to see a band that was always going to be a local band become a scene-level sensation. It gives a little bit of irony in the title track when he sings, “Forgotten, we’re blurred away.” Even though it’s possible to make those readings, the songs are still much more focusing on interpersonal relationships and changing maturity rather than a meditation on newfound fame.
While Oakwood’s earlier releases have a DIY charm to them, Odom and Yip’s production and mastering help to highlight how well-written these songs are. While Dwyer’s vocals are at the forefront, guitarist Benjamin Taylor James sculpts instantly catchy guitar leads that fluctuate between the classic arpeggiated notes and pulverizing choruses, and drummer Noah Roots holds it all together, jumping between driving punk-paced songs and more relaxed rhythms. “Footnote” and “The Color of Caring” are two of the major tracks that showcase their many modes, with the latter serving as basically an instrumental while a speech from Indian freedom fighter Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit plays.
While Oakwood could’ve ended up as a hidden treasure, Blurred Away reintroduces the band with fervor.
For the new generation that discovered the band through social media or even people who were actively following emo and screamo while their first run happened, Blurred Away is refreshing. It can transport back to that time, without carrying the burden that nostalgia gives.
Even though there is still questioning about how certain feelings are going to last, there’s also a healthy degree in acceptance and beauty in the ongoing search for contentedness.
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📸 © Drew Elaine
Blurred Away
an album by Oakwood
