Epilogues – You EP
By Libby Driscoll
Exploring brutal honesty and spilling naked truths, Epilogues’ You EP is a dream machine of emotion and deliberation.
Epilogues – You EP
Based in Leeds after moving from Norwich, the now northern singer/songwriter Mike Donnelley performs under the pseudonym Epilogues. After his debut EP release me, the follow up (and fittingly titled) You features five poetic tracks with an emphasis on self-growth and battles with optimism.
“Where ‘me’ is an acknowledgement of the loss, loneliness, and melancholy we often all find ourselves wrestling with, ‘You’ is an offering of hope and encouragement that things can and will be better. The two are inextricably linked. One needs the other, just as we need both honesty in where we are and hope for where we will be.” (Epilogues)
Instrumentally, the EP draws upon a number of humbling influences. From hazy folk to nineties dream pop, the EP is somewhat of a chameleon in its aura, relating to whatever emotion is most abundant within you in the moment.
Circle Takes The Square opens the EP and for me personally, is one of the most endearing openers I’ve heard in a while. Almost feeling like a bad habit, the song creeps inside and digs up buried emotions, which feels eerie in an oddly gratifying way. Alongside the ghostly atmosphere comes an unexpected vigour; Epilogues doesn’t hesitate in showing the variety of his musical adaptability, with his vocals switching from a gentle head voice to a rough, commanding energy in its latter half. The contrasting portrayal of the prayer-like passage stunningly shows the way in which emotions can adapt and change in a short amount of time.
Pictured: Epilogues
Following up from Circle Takes The Square is the EP’s leading track, 16: My Delightful Inheritance. Paired with a music video of VHS style home footage, the video switches between Epilogues performing alone on his acoustic guitar to walking through fields with a couple of friends (in which he wears a seriously cool jacket, might I add). Despite walking around on a gloomy British day, when paired with the music, the visuals express a safe, homely kind of warmth. The music itself is reminiscent of Noah and the Whale’s debut album, Peaceful, the World Lays Me Down. The delicate folk composition is carried by its vocal narrative, gently boosted with atmospheric sweeps beneath the music. Again, the music thickens up throughout the latter half in a less drastic way than before, gradually leading you towards the climax of the song.
Following There Is Always Hope, a track that sways from the folky theme of the EP and opts for a more lo-fi feel, is the title track of the album, You. Reminding me this time of Noah and the Whale’s second album The First Days of Spring, the track is another emotionally intense piece of work, illuminating with the lyrics “Left my bags again, I’m leaving town, and the roads that lacked instead, we made in miles, and we let go in the pouring doubt, and it’s evening now. I lost track again, My heart pulls south.”. With layered, hummed harmonies, music box adlibs and soft acoustic picking the texture of the track is undeniably rich whilst still managing to stay grounded.
Concluding with a rework of previously released single The Gap, the alternate version sits perfectly in its place of closing the EP. Though the original integrity of the song is still there, the energetic rework feels symbolic of the emotional journey Epilogues has undertaken between the release of me and You. With the original mix feeling quite melancholic, The Gap (Reprise) sounds like the track is now being reflected on nostalgically and being performed from a different perspective than before.
As I have stated, the music of the You EP is very much a chameleon. The collection of tracks feel very fitting to soundtrack a coming-of-age piece of cinema, holding a plethora of challenging, philosophical and solely human emotions nostalgic of transitioning from late-teen to adult. Though this is the second EP from Epilogues, the shift in energy feels like the true beginning of his distinctive sound.