We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.

Dear Wormwood

by The Oh Hellos

supported by
janmisha
janmisha thumbnail
janmisha it's such a beautiful album of grieving and loss and acceptance. it speaks to a particular kind of grief -- not a grieving of one who is lost, but the grieving for one who is still present and still causing pain. i love the last song most because while it could end in pain, or end with the narrators decision to permanently push this person out of their life and that would be justified, it doesn't. instead, it offers something. what is offered? acceptance. hope. and a chance for redemption Favorite track: Thus Always To Tyrants.
redrevelry
redrevelry thumbnail
redrevelry Gorgeous album with evocative lyrics and powerful instrumentals. Also my favorite rendition of "Danse Macabre" by far :) Favorite track: Exeunt.
Brandon Lewis
Brandon Lewis thumbnail
Brandon Lewis This album feels like the best kind of flying dream. Favorite track: Thus Always To Tyrants.
more... more...
/
  • Digital Album
    Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      $9.99 USD  or more

    You own this

     

1.
Prelude 01:08
2.
Bitter Water 03:16
Oh fair and flighty love My aerolite above The only dove I see Could you love me more If by the sun and moon I swore That I would never flee? I still taste you on my lips Lovely bitter water The terrible fire of old regret is honey on my tongue I know I shouldn't love you But I do I feel it in my soul I feel the empty hole The cup that can’t be filled I feel it in my blood In the fire and the flood The beast that can't be killed Even now you mark my steps Lovely bitter water All the days of our delights are poison in my veins I know I shouldn't love you I know I am not a fool entire No, I know what is coming You'll bury me beneath the trees I climbed When I was a child I know I shouldn't love you But I do
3.
There beneath the willow tree I learned a lot about the way of things I learned that everything (the wind, the leaves) has breath inside They were pointing ever east To see the ever-turning aeon cease Their wills were ever bent on waiting with all their might I know (I know) I know this There is beauty in the way of things There beyond the palisade I saw the morning lead a cavalcade They made a marvel of a display And it made me cry 'o lai' O lai (o lai) O lai lord There is beauty in the way of things
4.
5.
Exeunt 02:33 video
I was all alone, we were young, you were like wine Heady as the fog rolling in o'er the hillside Lovely as the song in the air as the wind blows Opiate as the cold of the frost on the windows Lo, the rose is gone from my eyes (so deceiving) So, my little dove, I'm afraid I am leaving Now, I am not the fool I was when I was younger Crocodile eyes, I have seen how you hunger Fluttering your lashes, like ashes and embers Warm and bright as fire devouring timber No, I cannot trust what you say when you're grieving So, my love, I'm sorry, but still: I am leaving Even when you hunt me with ire, relentless Batter down my door when you find me defenseless I will not abide all your raging and reaving I have set my mind and my will: I am leaving
6.
Caesar 04:42
Hear on the wind how the pendulum swings Feel how the winter succumbs to the spring Over the palisade morning will break Rise up to meet it, oh sleeper awake Gather the soldiers, the heir to enfold Crown him and give him a scepter to hold Sound every horn as the columns extend Up to the hill where the king will ascend Look to the sky where the sign will be shown Heaven and earth and the king on his throne Look to the sky where the sign will be shown
7.
No, I am not afraid to die It's every breath that comes before Heartache, I've heard, is part of life And I have broken more and more But I can hope how this will end With every line a comedy That we could learn to love without demand But unreserved honesty If I am not afraid to die And you are crouching at my door And suffering is all there is to gain in life Then what is all this waiting for? I can see how this will end In all its bitter tragedy I'll give you all I have to spend And you'll give nothing back to me And I will wait for this to end The back and forth, the battery For you, at last, to comprehend The kind of love of which I speak
8.
Down they fell like the children of Eden Down they fell like the tower As the land relinquished her ghost Heed the sirens, take shelter, my lover Flee the fire that devours But the sight held me fixed Like a bayonet against my throat Neither plague or famine tempered my courage Nor did raids make me cower But his translucent skin Made me shiver deep within my bones It was a pale white horse With a crooked smile And I knew it was my time It was the raging storm Of a foreign war And a face I'd seen before
9.
Was it you 'mid the fire and the ember? Were you there to bedevil and beguile? See, your face wasn't quite as I remember But I know that wicked shape to your smile Bury me as it pleases you, lover At sea, or deep within the catacomb But these bones never rested while living So how can they stand to languish in repose? He has thrown down the cavalry as gravel sinks And as the stone founders underneath the sundered sea of red and reed The shadow of Hades is fading For he has cast down leviathan, the tyrant, and the horse and rider Where is your rider? He will hold with all of his might the armies of night, Still as boulders laid to the side 'til we pass by He has hoisted out of the mire every child So lift your voice with timbrel and lyre "We will abide, we will abide, we will abide"
10.
There will come a soldier Who carries a mighty sword He will tear your city down, o lei o lai o lord O lei, o lai, o lei, o lord He will tear your city down, o lei o lai o lord There will come a poet Whose weapon is his word He will slay you with his tongue, o lei o lai o lord O lei, o lai, o lei, o lord He will slay you with his tongue, o lei o lai o lord There will come a ruler Whose brow is laid in thorn Smeared with oil like David's boy, o lei o lai o lord O lei, o lai, o lei, o lord Smeared with oil like David's boy, o lei o lai o lord O lei, o lai, o lei, o lord He will tear your city down, o lei o lai
11.
When I was a child, I didn't hear a single word you said The things I was afraid of, they were all confined beneath my bed But the years have been long, and you have taught me well to hide away The things that I believed in, you've taught me to call them all escapes I know who you are now There before the threshold, I saw a brighter world beyond myself And in my hour of weakness, you were there to see my courage fail For the years have been long, and you have taught me well to sit and wait Planning without acting, steadily becoming what I hate I know who you are now I have always known you, you have always been there in my mind But now I understand you, and I will not be part of your designs I know who I am now And all that you've made of me I know who you are now And I name you my enemy I know who I am now I know who I want to be I want to be more than this devil inside of me
12.
13.
Let me die, let me drown, lay my bones in the ground I will still come around when the time for sleep is through Over hill, over dale, through the valley and vale Do not weep, do not wail, I am coming home to you Every tomb, every sea, spit the bones from your teeth Let the ransomed be free as the revel meets the day Let the valleys awake, let them rattle and shake In the wind that remakes all that time has worn away To and fro, I will not follow Where you go, I will not also I will look for you as the sun rises higher When the dry bones dance with the timbrel and lyre There's a wind alive in the valley It will fill your lungs, if you'll have it Where I go, will you still follow? Will you leave your shaded hollow? Will you greet the daylight looming, Learn to love without consuming?

about

Dear Wormwood acts as a volume II to Through the Deep, Dark Valley. While Through the Deep, Dark Valley is about the protagonist’s past, Dear Wormwood is about the character’s future. The duo explains, "This album is a collection of letters, all written by a single protagonist and addressed to a single recipient, a conversation to which the listener is an observer as a relationship gone wrong reaches its breaking point - the words and music are at times affectionate and bittersweet, at others resigned and resolute."

credits

released October 16, 2015

All songs written by Maggie and Tyler Heath, with the exception of Danse Macabre, written by Camille Saint-Saens (Public Domain)

Produced by Maggie and Tyler Heath

Mixed and mastered by Charlie Kramsky.

Special thanks to Austin Norman, Chris McLeod, Drew Griffith, Joey Chance, Joshua Heinlein, Matthew Hagerman, Nathanael Smith, Reagan Smith, Charlie Moore, the Collection, Family and Friends, the Goodness Sakes, Noble Sun, Parlours, Penny and Sparrow, and Those Know-It-Alls & Their Mighty Causes for lending their voices to this album.

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

The Oh Hellos San Marcos, Texas

Please visit our website for physical merch!

The Oh Hellos began in a cluttered bedroom, where siblings Maggie and Tyler Heath recorded their self-titled EP in 2011. In the fall of 2012, the sibling duo released their debut full-length record Through the Deep, Dark Valley, an album full of regret and redemption, which they wrote, recorded, produced, mixed, and mastered themselves. ... more

contact / help

Contact The Oh Hellos

Streaming and
Download help

Redeem code

Report this album or account