- I'm sorry, Kevin McPhee, but whatever heartbreak you've been through, I'm glad you have. And he surely has: How else could you conjure such a perfectly bittersweet and melancholic vibe as "I Will" without having been through the mire with a loved one? Though the track has a mildly optimistic female vocal ringing out up top, it's never allowed to soar thanks to the heavyhearted and trudging kicks below, forever anchoring the whole thing in downbeat puddles of teary-eyed reflection. Like all the best songs it's (too) short and, come the abrupt end at four minutes 23 seconds, there's nothing left to do but play the thing again. And again. And again.
Elsewhere, McPhee opts for some of his most jagged lines yet on the wiggling, elastic "Hang My Head," but mines more familiar, cloudy depths with the other two cuts. The first of those is "Your Side"—a studiously funereal kicker with clean as mountain air vocals (which later turn to wordless ad-libbing) all blanketed in thick, endless and edgeless harmonic pads. Simple but strikingly effective, it's much the same story with the EP closer. Drenched in a fine blue mist, the percussion sounds detached—as if playing off somewhere in the distance—while a barely audible piano line is just another subtle element which adds to the nebulous, daydream vibe. Mopey never sounded so damn cool.
TracklistA1 I Will
A2 Hang My Head
B1 Your Side
B2 Blue Organ