Oh Pep! hold you in a trance as they relay their stories in I Wasn’t Only Thinking About You… With a natural arc throughout the album, it flows between soothing folk and energetic rock before concluding on a earnest note. The record opens strongly with ‘25’, as strings are tied together with a progressive guitar strum, before calming into melodic storytelling.
“On the eve of my 25th birthday you coming knocking on my door at night” are the lyrics which begin the album, setting up the immersive storytelling which only continues to push your emotions throughout the project. It’s hard not to feel something when ‘Hurt Nobody’ plays; lyrics are broken in between the mantra of coming undone” before stripping the instrumental to its skeleton, leaking vulnerability as singer-guitarist Olivia Hally utters “I don’t want to hurt nobody”.
The use of falsetto throughout the album exudes passion, adding extra meaning to lyrics on ‘Truth’ (“you can stay up in your bed thinking of things you sh-sh-sh should’ve said”). ‘Bleeding Hearts’ and ‘Your Nail and Your Hammer’ push energy into you with their inspired drumming.
Hally’s vocals create a warm and homely atmosphere for you to soak up amongst the narratives. Goosebumps spread as you hear her voice over a solo guitar uttering “I guess I could just stay here and whistle away my fears” on ‘Asking For’.
Your incentive to listen to I Wasn’t Only Thinking About You… in full, is to reach the album’s final track ‘There Would be a Riot’. Concluding with the solemn but meaningful sentence “there were times where you were denying, afraid that if you braked, afraid there would be a riot” the band sit in silence, leaving you in a state of reflection to soak in the poetry. If your focus isn’t the topline, there are countless instrumental elements, ranging from bare bones arrangements, string integration, dynamic drum lines to atmospheric tones.
Oh Pep!’s I Wasn’t Only Thinking About You… is filled with captivating harmonies as Hally and singer-violinst Pepita Emmerichs sync their voices hypnotically, using beautiful imagery to place the environment over your eyes.
