REVIEW: Westing – ‘I Haven’t Been Feeling Myself’ EP

Kayleigh Hadley

6 years ago

This EP is what you’d expect to hear on an early 2000’s tv show like One Tree Hill or The OC. Its hard to think that before this Matt Mascarenas was solo playing acoustically, because this sound is an incredible meshing of melancholy and punk-rock. Its heavy hitting, definitely something to jam to with the volume up.

Matt’s vocals and lyrics are mesmerising, and the more I listen the more I’m thinking I’d love to see this live, I’m instantly transported to a small club listening to these songs.

Opening with Skipping Beats, with the great lyric, “my brain is skipping beats”. Its such a good opening track, it eases you into whats in store for the rest of the EP. It has an immense guitar solo at around 3:20 and I’m just thinking, wow, these guys are good.

Next up is With You, easily single material. Its giving me watching One Tree Hill discovering Jack’s Mannequin vibes. Its catchy, got a great chorus, Matt is a great lyricist you can already tell that from just listening to two tracks.

The third track Burn. I love the build up at the start of this track, its what you need in the middle of an EP. Its a great middle track, with some heavy hitting guitars.

Quite a somber hard hitter (like all these tracks), Hide Your Heart is next. Honestly this track didn’t appeal to me as much as the rest, I think its more of a grower. That being said the outro is just so good, that last note…

The last track, Keep Fighting. Shouting back up vocals you want to shout along with, a catchy as hell riff, simply put; anthemic in its make up. A beautiful way to end this experience.

If you can’t tell at this point I’m all about this EP. Its exactly what my music library has been missing. And I genuinely hope I get to catch Westing live in a tiny club, because these songs are meant to be experienced live.

FFO Basement, The Hotelier, Jimmy Eat World.

‘I Haven’t Been Feeling Myself’ is released April 14th. Check out the single ‘With You’ right here: