I discovered The Oh Hellos a few months ago when my boyfriend sent me a link to their NPR Tiny Desk Concert on YouTube. I only watched them perform one piece, their breakout song “Hello, My Old Heart”, and I was hooked. Like many other indie-folk bands (and they are still independent, which is ironically somewhat of an outlier for the genre), their combination of guitar, drums, and string instruments fills you with warmth and a hint of nostalgia. Unlike many bands, though, The Oh Hellos manage to capture sweeping philosophical and theological concepts in their lyrics while still creating melodies that are impossible to get out of your head. You can listen to this band in the background while you bake on a Sunday morning and dance around your kitchen, or you can sit down in a dark room with your headphones and get completely lost in the intricacies of their poetry.
The Oh Hellos’ latest album, Eurus, is a short and fulfilling reflection of their style. The album clocks in at only nineteen minutes, yet in that time it covers the transition from paganism to Christian doctrine, the division of man from nature, the lasting grief of guilt, and the hope that we can always continue to grow. To top it all off, there’s a quick break for a faunvocation (a convocation of fauns, of course). In each of the seven songs, siblings Tyler and Maggie Heath interweave their masterful voices with pounding drums and playful fiddles.
Eurus begins with a trembling note overlayed with tinkling guitar and bells that introduce the first song of the album: “O, Sleeper”. This balladic description of the Genesis flood foregoes a traditional rhyme scheme in favor of lyrics that are reminiscent of a stream-of-consciousness monologue. The song transitions seamlessly into the following piece, “Dry Branches”, which is a short instrumental interlude full of rattles and plucked strings and other noises that give the effect of a winter branch rustling in the wind. These sounds eventually resolve into a rhythm that brings the listener into “Grow”. “Grow” was released as a single ahead of the rest of the album, and it is the only song that doesn’t deal directly with theology. Instead, it urges the listener to “Let be what is, let be what isn't / It's a natural world in which we're living / And if you let it alone, it will surely grow.” Although the sentiment can be applied to personal growth, we can also see the literal growth of nature all around us as humanity retreats into their homes, allowing birds and deer and goats to roam wild in the streets of cities for the first time in centuries. Maggie leads the vocals with a choir backing her, allowing her range to truly shine.
Once again, the notes of Grow transition without pause into the titular song of the album, Eurus. Lovers of Greek mythology will appreciate the cameo appearances of various deities in this song as Tyler describes the frequent futility of humanity’s fight against its darker nature and the struggle to be generous in a greedy, materialistic world. The listener can contemplate these thoughts over quiet guitar and violin for a moment before the album launches into the joyous instrumental celebration that is “A Convocation of Fauns (A Faunvocation, If You Will)”. This second interlude leads into “Hieroglyphs”. The song imagines a future in which humanity is able to reconnect with nature and the cycle of violence and hatred is “burn[ed] down in the end”. While this song contains some of my favorite lyrics, the electric guitar and a shout-sung chorus sometimes overwhelm them, making it the weakest of the album’s songs.
The album concludes with “Passerine”, which is probably the best demonstration of The Oh Hellos’ bittersweet poetic lyrics and foot-stomping rhythms rolled into one beautiful song. After Maggie ruminates on the hypocrisy that so often infects organized religion, the guitar, fiddles, drums, and voices build as they repeat a chorus that asks “When he comes a knocking at my door / What am I to do, what am I to do, oh lord? / When the cold wind rolls in from the north / What am I to do, what am I to do, oh lord?” The question is never answered; what is humanity to do about our desire to do good yet the fear that leads us to commit evil acts instead?
I’ve been listening to this album on repeat for the past few weeks as I sit at my kitchen counter, trying to get work done despite life being so different from how it used to be. Some of you who know me well might wonder why an atheist would be so enthralled by a band who spends much of their music contemplating the nature of Christianity. But I firmly believe that their songs stretch far beyond biblical passages. In this time of uncertainty, fear, and acts of human generosity, isn’t it nice to think about the idea that “even the great celestial hieroglyphs/ Are bodies of dust illuminated, and if / The heavens can be both sacred and dust / Oh, maybe so can the rest of us?”
You can learn more about The Oh Hellos and buy all of their albums on their website.