The
Oaks' debut album,
Our Fathers and the Things They Left Behind, was as much reportage from the front lines of Afghanistan's ongoing refugee crisis as it was a pop record. Singer/songwriter
Ryan Costello and drummer Matthew Antolick recorded the album as a duo after
Costello returned from a tour of duty with a humanitarian aid organization in Afghanistan, a very direct, almost pedantic, series of songs about the human costs of war set to gentle acoustic indie folk tunes. For the follow-up,
Songs for Waiting,
Costello and Antolick expanded the
Oaks into a full-sized band better able to expand on
Costello's chamber pop proclivities, and although the lyrics are still mordantly earnest, they take a wider and more impressionistic view and allow broader hints of
Costello as a person instead of a marker for the presentation of a larger idea. Musically, the album sounds wonderful: the expanded lineup gives the record a more live sound, as does
Costello and Antolick's decision to record the songs using natural room sounds in the manner of vintage jazz records, as opposed to clinically separated instruments and artificial effects. The warm, inviting ambience of songs like the spacious "Old Bones" and the dreamy folk of "Here I Am Again," coupled with
Costello's more personal lyrical direction, makes
Songs for Waiting a more compelling listen than the sometimes strident
Our Fathers and the Things They Left Behind. ~ Stewart Mason