Claude says:Timothy Showalter's been making rock records as Strand of Oaks since 2009, moving from Indiana folk roots through synthpop detours and back to full-throated guitar music. Miracle Focus is his eighth album and it sounds like someone who's survived enough upheaval to trust big, open-hearted hooks again — electric but not polished, urgent without being frantic. You grabbed it two years after it came out and burned through the whole thing in a month, circling back to "Ananda" and "Ascend You" most, but really you played every track.