Album review: Matt Epp “Learning To Lose Control”

by Samuel Hernandez

Matt Epp is filled with rustic desolation on his latest album Learning to Lose Control. The hushed acoustics with yearning-hearted vocals delve deep into the folk lexicon and pull an album teeming with all the right notes. Epp is a Canadian folk singer from right in the middle of the country, Winnipeg. He is a consistent performer and has released 7th full albums since starting up in 2005.

Learning to Lose Control is a mix of graveled vocals and seductive backup singers. It opens with “Use Your Head,” a guitar twang in the background, a dusty bar and beer sitting waiting to be downed before calling for another. There is a cross-genre connection on Learning to Lose Control, where the usual folk starts to meet adult alternative from the 90s and pop sensibility, a bit of  piano gets thrown in, and an exasperated lyric scheme gets thrown out. “You can hold me/but you can’t hold me down,” in an imitation of an early Sugar Ray song.

This slipping into pop isn’t a slight to Epp on Learning to Lose Control. There is a radio play quality to these songs. Each song progressing through the album further cements the identity of the artist. The duet in “When You Know” adds a country soul.

The fault in Learning to Lose Control is the simplistic lyrics. They’re attempting to express a universal truth but often times come across as clichéd or shallow. Only occasionally they venture outside of the mundane – some of “Ice Below the Man” except for “After all he’s just a main/grain of sand/so take his hand”.