#dear wormwood

[ourstaturestouchtheskies]

Cloud Study – Knud Baade // The Wanderer – Ferdinand Brunner // Cloud Study – Knud Baade // The Wrath of the Seas – Ivan Aivazovsky (detail) // Clouds Over the Sea – Ivan Aivazovsky // Big Clouds – Hans Emmenegger (detail) // Study of Clouds with a Sunset Near Rome – Simon Denis // Before the Storm – Isaac Levitan // Dear Wormwood – The Oh Hellos

[iiinkos]

god i love thus always to tyrants sm. i was listening to dear wormwood on loop and when thus always to tyrants ended and it started on prelude again i was like “wait!!!! i was jamming!!!!” then i went back and put it on loop. still is on loop actually

[camthecleric]

I finished Shadowheart’s story line like over a week ago?

This song is her

[soapcan18]

EVERYONE I JUST NOTICED SOMETHING REALLY COOL

So these are the Anemoi album covers, right? Do you notice a similarity between all of them?

Yes, they all have animals surrounded by a gold ring on them. Obviously there is a lot of symbolism involved with these specific animals and their respective albums, but that’s a whole other conversation.

Right now I want to point out the gold ring— more importantly, how is it changing as the albums progress?

In Notos, the thicker portion of the ring is in the bottom right corner.

In Eurus, that portion is in the top right corner.

In Boreas, it’s in the top left corner.

And in Zephyrus, it’s in the bottom left corner.

THE RING IS GOING IN A CIRCUIT!!!

The thick portion of the ring is moving counterclockwise with each album! And if you go back to Notos after Zephyrus, it’ll be right back at where it started!

This is yet another symbol of the Anemoi albums’ themes of change, cycles, etc. AND IT’S HIDDEN IN PLAIN SIGHT!

How COOL is that??? I just noticed!!

This is even crazier when you add on the fact that the final song you listen to, after going through all the albums, is Rounds.

And what is the ring doing? MAKING ROUNDS!! Going around and around as you keep replaying the albums, repeating the cycle of summer to fall to winter to spring to summer over and over again just as The Oh Hellos intended to convey :)

[kitttttchaos]

Adam Parrish x Dear Wormwood by The Oh Hellos

[mosswoodmc]

this is what my ass looks like when I show off my taste in music to my friends.

[activatebutterflyshield]

Prompt four from @ultrainfinitepit’s Angeltober: Hunter!

This angel design is part of this set inspired by the album art and themes of the music of the Oh Hellos, specifically, this is Dear Wormwood the false dragon. With the hooves of a pale white horse and the half-bramble, half-laurel crown of Caesar the ruler upon its head, this creature appears more demon than angel. Though with its sworn duty of hunting down and killing the demon Wormwood, such an unpleasant appearance is necessary.

[rocknrollinbitchforu]

thus always to tyrants by the oh hellos save me! save me thus always to tyrants by the oh hellos!

[creative-chaos-apparently]

From an The Oh Hellos enjoyer to another... How do we feel about Bitter Water as a song for Hunter and Belos (my stupid ideas need validation /lh /j)

The album “dear wormwood” is about the singer (or the letter author), escaping their abusive relationship with the person they are addressing by “wormwood”. It’s about the realization of abuse and the escape from it! And it can also apply to a toxic lover in the original metaphor behind the music! But also a parent of an abusive tyrant.

A “bitter water” is a drink made out of wormwood— a toxic plant. SOMETHING SOMETHING GRIMWALKER PALISMAN WOOD METAPHOR

This makes Dear Wormwood as an ALBUM— the perfect series of songs for Hunter’s ENTIRE character arc. For example…

Bitter water: The singer is trapped in a relationship with someone they praise highly. Seeing them as lovely though as the song goes on they get their first inklings that something is wrong. Hunter is not a fool entire, he knows he is a tool for Belos’s empire. But he blindly follows into that suffering out of love for Belos.

Exeunt: This song describes the big initial escape from the abuser— the rose colored glasses removed and the singer realizing the danger they are in, and fleeing. Such as Hunter does after discovering his origins as a grimwalker and hiding in Hexide all alone!

Dear Wormwood: The singer looks back and acknowledges where they came from and just how much HARM their abuser did to them. Vowing to reframe their life and become more than their past. Just as Hunter does with his haircut while in the human realm. He even has “this devil inside of me” when Belos possesses him. Flapjack’s death is the final turn in making Hunter into a new person of his own free will.

This Always to Tyrants: Years after the abuser is gone, the singer looks back onto their old life after having found new love and happiness. Realizing how far they’ve come and in the end, tyrants always fall. Though the horror of the abuse before stays with them forever. Just as Hunter is seen in the last parts of the series.

Anyway now I’m thinking about Hunter again and I’m sad.

[raineyraven]

i really love the oh hellos and it always makes me kind of sad to see soldier poet king made into trendy quizes and stuff about who's a soldier who's a king or whatever. because it's a really deep song and an important part of the concept album it's a part of, but it gets simplified and taken out of its original context. the soldier, the poet and the king are not separate, they are the same character, the protagonist of the album whose conflict involves struggling to escape from an abusive relationship. soldier poet king is about the protagonist overcoming their abuse, using the second coming of jesus as a metaphor for the return and self-realisation of the protagonist. it is a triumph of the protagonist depicted through biblical symbolism. the soldier, the poet and the king all refer to jesus, and also to the protagonist.

like this song is so deep and meaningful!!! i strongly encourage people who like soldier poet king to listen to the full dear wormwood album and get the context of the rest of the story; soldier poet king is a midpoint in the narrative. and it is a complex and absolutely beautiful narrative.

[asoftepiloguemylove]

Is there any chance you could make a web weaving of wanting to be a better parent than one’s own? Like a protective individual wanting to spite a bloodline of pain to foster love and care to their own child? To be better that one’s own parents? I think a web weaving of this would be gorgeous!

Ethel Cain Family Tree (Intro) / The Oh Hellos Dear Wormwood / Emily Brontë Healthcliff / Caitlin Conlon (@/cgcpoems on instagram) / Lia Marie Johnson DNA / Nicola Yoon The Sun Is Also a Star / Daniel Jamie Williams Dear Mother... / Marina & The Diamonds The Family Jewels

[ourstaturestouchtheskies]

okay I haven't done a poll in a while so here's one lol

*gender neutral

I figured I'd do this since I have one for lord huron and two for florence. it was harder to pick out distinct characters for this, but I hope you still enjoy!

(and yes I know some of these are characters/figures from outside the oh hellos universe to which the band is making allusions, but just think about them in the context of the oh hellos' music)

[iiinkos]

im curious now so

the dear wormwood disclaimer is there because i think the trend might skew the results lel

[lauriemarch]

i owe The Oh Hellos at least 14% of my whimsical spirit

[dusktodust]

the oh hellos, if you can hear me, PLEASE release a ten year anniversary vinyl pressing of dear wormwood in 2025 PLEASEEE

[soapcan18]

Thought I’d share these for anyone who hasn’t seen them :) They’re the official descriptions for each of the Anemoi albums on The Oh Hellos’ website!

Notos

Notos, the first installment in an ongoing series, is named for the ancient Greco-Roman god of the south wind, who brought storms in the summer. Musically, the record draws from the siblings' memories of summers spent exploring the Pacific Northwest with their grandparents, as well as their experiences with the frequent threat of hurricanes as they grew up on the Texas Gulf Coast. Thematically, the series considers the question: "where did our ideas come from?" Notos recounts a time when the duo weren't even aware there was a question to ask, and reflects on the backfire effect we experience when confronted with new information for the first time.

Eurus

Once that first question posed in the Notos EP is asked — "where did my ideas come from?" — it opens the floodgates to more. While wrestling with them all can ultimately lead to a fuller understanding of the world around you (and leave you with more empathy than you started with), it can also leave you feeling alienated from the communities you used to identify with. Eurus, released in early 2018 as the second installment in a series, is a continued interrogation of our own beliefs, and as Eurus was the wind most closely associated with autumn, the record seeks to capture the feelings of dark woods, dry branches, dead leaves, and wondering who had migrated — you, or your flock?

Boreas

Boreas, the northern wind, ushered in the harsh frosts of lonely winter. The arrangements of this third installment evoke images of snow-blanketed darkness, candlelight behind cupped hands, and a vast night sky ribboned with stars and auroras. As we wrote these songs, we found ourselves confronted with the ways we’ve personally and communally reflected the character of this wind — how we often avoid discomfort, even at the expense of others, until we are left cold, hard, and unfeeling. In this record, we ask the winter to instead kindle us into something warmer and softer than who we’ve been.

Zephyrus

The series concludes. Zephyrus, the final cardinal wind of this project, brought the gentle warmth of spring that summoned up a new year of growth rooted in the fertile ashes of all the structures that keep us isolated and unfeeling — the kind of growth we can see in ourselves, if we can muster the courage to be vulnerable. The arrangements mirror and embrace this shift, rising up like tender leaves breaking through concrete and cascading down like mountain rivers surging with the first thaw of the season. It’s been a long year; thanks for listening.