Toby Jepson - 'Viewfinder'

(Jepsongs Recordings)

Viewfinder is a collection of songs curated from Toby Jepson’s career between 2002 and 2013. This period is what I call Jepson’s wilderness years, he was active in the world of music but you only knew this if you cared to look for him! Obviously in recent years he has become more visible in the public eye mainly because of the success of his new band Wayward Sons. It always shocked me how quickly people forgot about Jepson, he was hugely successful with the Little Angels but following their disbandment he was quickly pushed to one side in the music industry. A lot of this had to do with the radical musical changes in the rock scene in the mid-nineties – but his follow up band Toby and the Whole Truth addressed these changing times and had huge alternative rock leanings. Sadly, the band failed to ignite a new generation of fans and established fans vanished!

Jepson disappeared for six or so years, as far as I’m aware he effectively stepped away from music altogether during this time before remerging in the underground rock scene in 2002, with the support of a small but loyal gathering of fans he managed to resurrect his music career even if it took him a long time to get more wide spread acknowledgement and appreciation, this time period and his excessive song writing paved the way for brighter times!

I remember been really excited to see Toby Jepson live again numerous times in 2002 and 2003, at the likes of JB’s in Dudley and the Rock Café in Stourbridge! I have amazing memories of that first show at JB’s, the atmosphere was stunning and the man got a rapturous response and I remember him taking off the roof with a second rendition of ‘Breakdown’ to close the show! He’d opened the show with ‘Breakdown’ and I like to believe him repeating this song was in response to what had been a great gig and making sure we all went home with bigger smiles than him! I played the Refresh EP over and over back then and was actually stunned his career didn’t get back on track right there and then, either as a solo artist or with a new band! I’m a little shocked ‘Break Down’ didn’t make it onto Viewfinder a hook ridden upbeat rocker which is a perfect bouncy song to enjoy live!

Viewfinder cherry picks songs from this era and the quality of the audio varies from track to track based on how the songs were originally recorded and some tracks are just good quality demos. Although we are warned about varying audio quality, I found the album as a whole far better than I expected, so don’t let the fact this doesn’t have a modern shiny production put you off – it doesn’t degrade the impact of the songs or your enjoyment of them in the slightest.

You do have to take this album for what it is though, this is not a brand-new solo album or even a greatest hits collection – it is a reflection of this time in Jepson’s career. This album is a curiosity piece which can be enjoyed as such and with that in mind, but I think this is a must for hardcore dedicated Jepson fans to own, especially for the tracks even the most diehard may not have gotten their sticky mitts on over the years!

Given the length of the time period these songs are collated from you’ll not be surprised at the reasonably eclectic mix of styles and flows of the twenty strong track list. There is a good mix of pop-rock, classic rock, acoustic rock and alternative sounds he has experimented with most notably on the Toby & The Whole Truth album.

A couple of the songs could have easily fitted onto a second Whole Truth album, I’d be curious to learn if some of them were written in the late nineties as either cast offs of that writing period or a potential follow up album. It’s a great shame we only ever got that one Whole Truth album, there was so much potential for that project and Jepson’s writing at the time. I think his writing has evolved too far for him to return to that style so many years later though sadly.

During this period Jepson wrote a lot of songs with prominent acoustic guitar’s casting shades on different styles of writing and song performances. Some of it echoes the likes of Springsteen and Petty and on ‘Four Letter Word’ in particular there is a strong folky twang and this emphasises the eclectic nature of the songs making up this album.

I’ve always liked Jepson’s vocal tone and his unique delivery and this album in particularly proves how versatile his vocals are in different styles and sounds, he’s not restricted to the world of classic rock. Here he displays full throttle pop-rock alongside atmospheric acoustic tracks and rambunctious rockers.

As you’d expect from a collection like this it can be a mixed bag but I really enjoyed it and I know others will too. I think Jepson fans in particular will appreciate it more so than your average rocker, but there are songs on here that really deserve to be heard by a wider audience. Songs that jump out at me to push people to check out include ‘Unwind’, ‘Four Letter Word’, ‘Weight Of The World’ and ‘Happily Ever After’.

Not every song on Viewfinder is a winner but it is a really cool overview of Jepson’s song writing during this time and the gems amongst it make it well worth adding to your personal music collection for your repeat aural pleasure!

7/10

Essential Track – ‘Unwind’

Review by Woody