“On A Day Like That” is the first installment in a project that started during the global pandemic by Canadian singer-songwriter Owen Young. The EP comprises 5 joyous and versatile tracks, which I’ll be dissecting for you today.
The EP starts out with the title track, which is an upbeat country piece with some folk and rockabilly influences. But that’s not all, the drumming on the track and the vocals are highly soulful, and the way the track itself is arranged is set to lure in a bunch of different listeners, not just those into country music. Owen’s vocals are clear and passionate, but he retains enough power to adjust his dynamics according to those of the music. Overall it’s a positive-sounding song with instrumentation that’s as equally joyous and easy to follow as the vocals. The second track, “Will You Be The One“, has a very engaging strumming pattern on the guitar and backing female vocals that make you wanna sing along to every word…believe me when I say I had to repeat the song a few times till I memorized it and was able to sing along to some of those sweet lyrics. The female vocals contradict their male counterparts beautifully, with the guest vocalist putting a lot more rasp that made her parts sound a lot more gritty and emotional. It was a very special song in writing terms too because the verses felt like a storytelling sea chanty and the chorus was a very romantic and softly sung part- a powerful and impactful contradiction.
“Maybe It Was A Saturday” feels like a Johnny Cash meets Elvis kind of piece…in that, it has 60s nostalgia written all over it, a chord progression that’s highly engaging and loveable, and warm vocal lines that are saddening and reminisce about the past. What makes the song unique though is the soft voice and warm timbre with which Owen sings, it’s really the star of the show here. The following track, “Hiding It All Away”, takes the storytelling method of vocals to a whole new level because of how fast-paced and uptempo the verses are. The story it tells is that of a person who’s hiding their true self away…and that theme couldn’t have been presented better than this. I really loved the haunting backing vocals that made me dance and tap along to the song, and the bridge/solo section in the middle of the song was heaven-sent too. The fifth and final track, “A True Friend In You“, shows the return of the guest female vocals with their natural vibrato and the low-key rasp in them. I fell in love with this track and how beautifully it ended this masterpiece of an album with the vibes of friendship and companionship in life, a narrative that recurs multiple times on the album and made me add it to my playlist and replay it many times because of how I was craving to feel those emotions with that music again. In the end, the only thing that bugged me was the fact that this is an EP not a full-length, because I was hungry for more of these folky/country vibes and storytelling vocals that I fell in love with.