Ohio-based folk band Caamp recently released their third extended play (EP), titled Somewhere, about a month ago. The EP consists of four tracks, including their single “Let Things Go,” which was released on February 18.
Caamp was born of long-time friendship: Evan Westfall (banjo) and Taylor Meier (vocals, guitar) met in middle school, both born and raised in Upper Arlington, Ohio. They started playing and writing music together in high school, and released their self-titled debut record Caamp in 2016. Two EPs followed in 2018, Boys (Side A) and Boys (Side B). The band welcomed bass player Matt Vinson before recording their 2019 sophomore album called By and By, and keyboardist Joseph Kavalec joined the group in 2020. In 2022, Caamp released their third album, Lavender Days. In September 2023, Meier posted a statement to Facebook canceling the remainder of the Lavender Days tour dates for the rest of that year, due to mental health reasons. Since then, minus a remix and a collaboration on another track, Caamp had not released any further larger bodies of work until Somewhere came into being.
From start to finish, Caamp’s latest EP echoes with the kind of sincerity that has marked their music from their debut. Their lyricism revolves around friendship, around the significance of remembering an afternoon spent with someone down to the very last detail. “Slackjaw” begins with audio of a conversation, establishing that the band is recording once again, having returned to the studio in New York from a trip to Italy. The melody is upbeat, the banjo light and eager, and the guitar soft without being timid. Meier sings, “If I bought you a peach tree, and put it in your backyard / To say how much you mean to me, I get a little slack jawed.” This illustrates the inevitable embarrassment of sincerity, of wanting so badly to express a real feeling and consequently having to deal with the vulnerability you’ve exposed, for “when we go back to school, we’re gonna act way too cool.”
The intimacy of that direct address continues to thread through Caamp’s music, including the next track, “Let Things Go”: “Set things down, it’s okay / To take rest / Let things go, it’s not good for you / Or anybody else.” Once, in speaking about the track “Sure Of” on Lavender Days, Meier expressed that “Some songs are letters you write to your future self. You don’t realize until the time is right.” On Somewhere, Caamp seems to have grown even bolder in their letter-writing. In “Let Things Go,” Meier’s address is explicit, instructing someone (maybe himself) to set things down in this present moment. He does so patiently and reasonably, and with a sense that whoever he’s speaking to is someone whose well-being truly matters to him.
“Used to This” features the voice of rising folk artist Bebe Stockwell, whose low range complements Meier’s well. They both possess a similar raspiness that only round each other out without sounding grating. Meier and Stockwell pose questions: “Will we remember it? / Is it traced in the stars, is it all of it,” and offer tentative answers, “I think it’s all of it / I hear you in melody / In every word of the song,” reflecting some faith in the music, where the song is what holds these two people together.
The final track, “Somewhere,” maintains the feeling of careful optimism that Caamp has traced throughout this EP. Meier seems to have surrendered to some faith in timing, singing that “I know that love is crazy, I know that love is there” and then clarifying, “I mean, I hope we find it somewhere.” The lyrics reflect a sureness, a conviction and simultaneously an awareness that all we really have at the end of the day is our capacity to hope, to honestly just believe that things will take a turn for the better. In all, Caamp’s latest EP is a breath of fresh air in a time where it has been too easy to tend towards doom and late winter gloom. Somewhere reaffirms we can keep hoping even when nothing feels entirely certain—that sometimes to feel just a bit lighter for the length of a song can make all the difference.
