Ben Howard’s “Oats in the Water” Lyrics Meaning

The narrator (Ben Howard) approaches “Oats in the Water” from a melancholy disposition, as in he is clearly dealing with depression. But overall he seems to come to the resolution that he will endure the inner turmoil he is currently experiencing.

Indeed even from the onset of the song, we find that he has resolved to deal with this issue on his own and in all its excruciating detail. In fact his personal ideology is that this is the way such situations should be handled – gradually and personally.

Later, he seems to acknowledge that hardship (i.e. depression) is an inevitable part of life but also that people have the wherewithal to withstand such. But he also admits that when these hard times do hit, it is a harrowing experience where an individual will suffer “loss” and “fear”.

But in the roundabout way, the message of this song is not necessarily the inevitability of the struggles associated with depression. Rather it seems to be something more along the lines of the singer regretting he didn’t take certain actions concerning a particular female in the past. In other words, he implies that he is in a state of sufferation due to not asking certain questions of this lady.

And “Oats in the Water” is very folksy, meaning that the language used throughout is intentionally vague and symbolic. Thus we don’t know who this lady is nor the questions he regrets not asking her.  But generally speaking, if this person was indeed a romantic interest, this idea can be interpreted one of two ways.  One is that perhaps he regrets not being more serious in their relationship, and the questions he wished he would have asked were along the lines of imploring her to commit to him. Thus the depression he is feeling throughout the track is due to his losing this lady. Or another way to look at it is he wishes he had been more inquisitive concerning her past before he committed to her. And thus his melancholy is based on falling in love with a woman he didn’t really research before giving his heart to.

Conclusion

 All things considered, “Oats in the Water” is not a song about interpersonal relations per se. Rather its intended purpose seems to be to highlight Ben Howard’s personal beliefs when it comes to the subjects of depression and how to overcome it.

But what really is the meaning of “Oats in the Water”?

Finally, as for the titular term “oats in the water”, it likely alludes to the familiar process of preparing oats (for consumption) by mixing them with hot water. However, there is no clear indication of what this term means within the context of this song. Thus the implication would be, like many of the other symbols Howard has used throughout his track, that the phrase “oats in the water” is meant to be open-ended. It apparently is not intended to have a definitive meaning but rather to be interpreted by us (the listeners) however we want.

What Howard has said about “Oats in the Water”

In a Radio.com interview, Howard explained how he gave birth to this song. According to him, he penned it while suffering from a fever during a visit to the North African country of Morocco.

Production and Release Date

Howard’s regular collaborator, Chris Bond, handled the production responsibilities of “Oats in the Water”.

Island Records released this track on 31 October 2012, as part of Ben Howard’s The Burgh Island EP.  Indeed due to its usage in certain pop-media franchises (most notably on the fifth episode of the fourth season of the hit television series The Walking Dead), this track has proven to be the most-popular of the four songs featured on the EP.