On EPO’s debut, the same place-name leads into different song histories.
EPO's debut album DOWN TOWN, released in March 1980, contains a detail worth slowing down for. Its opening “DOWN TOWN” and the identically named piece paired later with “Pop Music” do not have the same writing credits. The first has words by Ginji Ito and music by Tatsuro Yamashita; the other belongs to Tony Hatch. What appears to be a repeated place-name puts two song histories inside one record. There is no single route into the centre of a city, even when that city exists on a sleeve.
The juxtaposition makes covering a song more than a ceremony of respect for predecessors. Sony identifies the opener as a Sugar Babe cover, while the album also contains EPO's own writing. Inheritance and creation happen together, neither required to vacate the premises for the other. For a singer releasing a first album, choosing an existing song and presenting an original are both forms of introduction. She can declare direction through the relationships she selects, then alter their centre of gravity through work of her own. A debut does not require pretending to have no musical past.
The track list also preserves another scale of urban life through titles such as “Klaxon,” “Asphalt Hitori,” and “Coffee Time.” Horns, paving, coffee: the words bring a metropolis down from its distant skyline to the dimensions of ordinary use. They do not automatically constitute a social survey. They suggest a way into the record, where a city need not require an extravagant set and can instead be assembled from small objects and habits. Put the final track's coffee break beside the opening destination and staying put acquires as much legitimacy as going out.
Today, an algorithm may deliver one of these songs in isolation; the album's value includes its permission to continue walking. The two “DOWN TOWN” titles ask us to distinguish works, while the coexistence of originals and covers asks us to enlarge our idea of a singer's identity. EPO does more than retrace an old road: she makes several roads part of her beginning. The debut becomes both a calling card and an invitation, saying who its singer is and which voices she wishes to live among. Arriving downtown can also be the beginning of getting to know the neighbours.