The Winchester Local - Already Yesterday

The Winchester Local
Already Yesterday

self-released; 2014

3.9 out of 5

By Matt Jensen

The debut album from The Winchester Local entitled Already Yesterday sounds unequivocally American. It doesn’t shove it down your throat like a pop/country song that overtly sings about being American. Instead Already Yesterday catches glimpses of some of the best acts to come from the states that tend to encompass the essence of Americana.

Perhaps the most glaring example of this is the first track “The Girl From Albany.” The lead singer doesn’t particularly sound like Bruce Springsteen but the music has some similarities to the E-Street band. The horns combined with the organ and guitar along with the right notes are hard to ignore. On top of that the lyrics refer to small towns and prominent American cities. 

Aside from the nostalgic American presence the songs need to be well written and executed. Luckily, the band succeeds in both areas. The energy is contagious and feels like a celebration. It gets more engaging as it progresses and is quite an opening statement from the band. 

The band quickly establishes that they are versatile and have a lot of quality songs ahead of them. ”Tell Me About The Moon” is robust with rich instrumentation and reaches a number of impressive peaks. One of the impressive peaks is when Tyler Phillips (vocals, guitar) belts outs “Tell Me about The Moon” and hangs on to the last note that reminded of something coming from Elton John. 

“Without The Rain” shows the band still can be effective when they are more subdued and at a different energy level. Phillips’ vocal work sounds good throughout but I love the space that was created for it during the verse. The three songs featuring Carly Howard were a nice treat that created even more diversity in the album. I usually love to hear a combination of male and female vocal harmonies and there is no exception here. They sound great and complement each other very well. The closer “Thirty-Five” is a cathartic ending that is a good on the verge of a great album.

This album has very few flaws and is enjoyable all the way through. The production, song-writing and overall delivery
is often exceptional. Not bad at all for a debut. 

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