Epic Soundtracks with the co-founder of British post-punk cult heroes the Swell Maps. After parting ways Epic bounced around in various forgettable bands before answering his true calling as a pop singer/songwriter reminiscent of what Brian Wilson likely sounded like when he recorded demo's in his garage or what Syd Barrett might have sounded like if he hadn't been quite so odd. Epic was found dead in his home in London in late 1997 at the age of 37 while working on new material and now, nearly 8 years later, those song will finally seeing the light of day.
Good Things is one of those albums that could be extraordinary to the masses, but will probably remain at the "indie pop must have" level. The album is chock full of stripped down, reverb heavy, pop songs. Led by Epic's gentle and often sad piano playing and backed by thin sounding acoustic guitars and minimal backing vocals for the most part, the album delivers a low key musical feast. These songs are great but they are very raw and that is honestly pretty distracting. This is an album that you really have to be able to "look over" some things. Such it is when you are releasing an album posthumously I suppose.
When all is said and done though, what you get from this album depends on what you invest in it. "I Do Declare", "Unfaithful Arms", and "Black Hole" are the highlights as far as I'm concerned. Fans of artists like Brian Wilson (only sadder), Denison Witmer, Syd Barrett, and Elliott Smith will want to at least check this out. Perhaps in a different environment these are the songs that would have made Epic a household name.
2.5/4
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