The Epstein are easily one of the best live bands in Oxford. Their expansive, Americana-tinged sound is beautifully rendered live thanks to Jon Berry’s excellent slide-guitar work, a subtle, complementary rhythm section, gorgeous three-part harmonies and never less than engaging performances from frontman Olly Wills, whose voice is pure and emotive. The accolades they’ve received from a whole host of magazines and personalities including Whispering Bob Harris have been wholly deserved thus far and would make many a bumbling country musician jealous. And therefore this sampler of their upcoming album comes pretty highly anticipated.
I Held You Once is actually something of a departure from The Epstein’s previous material in as much as they have attempted to create a dense, layered studio record, rather than trying to capture their stellar live sound. The title track certainly has the sweeping, cinematic feel that Wills and co are aiming for; layers of strummed acoustic guitar, and picked electric guitars build elegantly over one another and each new part feels like it has been placed with such planned precision that it must have its own mathematic formula. Wills’ voice is crisp and clear, devoid of any of the Americanisms which crept into his previous vocal work. As Wills sings the bittersweet tagline of the song – “I held you once, it was the longest night of my life” – the band kicks into a driving beat and a circular guitar figure, reminiscent of Fleet Foxes’ ‘White Winter Hymnal.’ It’s a gorgeous song which has already become a highlight of their live set.
‘Ring on Her Finger’ however returns to more familiar sonic territory, not just for The Epstein but for country music in general, and although the song plods along nicely – particularly the underlying banjo and bass – one can’t help but feel like we’ve heard it all before-Wilco’s ‘She’s a Jar’ is one of the songs which springs to mind. Closing track ‘Another Band Has Gone’ is a rather by the numbers, bleak folk song and is over before it has had much of a chance to make an impression. Perhaps it will need to be heard in the context of the rest of the album to be fully appreciated but as the last song here it sounds like the sort of b-side you’d expect from an Americana band. Not bad by any means, but not particularly noteworthy either.
Here we have a band that is clearly ready to take the next step into the musical spotlight and one which probably deserves to be in it already. The accompanying press release emphasises the large amount of time that the band spent in the studio perfecting this new sound (which has received glowing reviews from the Independent, Q, Rolling Stone and the like) and that is why it is so sad to report that although one certainly can’t fault the musicianship and craftsmanship on display here, these songs are hard to get too excited about because it feels like we’ve already heard them.
A bittersweet release then, not unlike the sentiment in the opening song. It’s hard not to feel a little disappointed by two-thirds of this release, but maybe that’s because we’re judging The Epstein against their own high standards.