No Named – “You Will See A Chance”
No Named – “You Will See A Chance” – Single Review
Sometimes, you earn a passing grade.
There’s just enough here for No Named to keep going as far as I can tell. It’s kind of like how when I got my driver’s license for the very first time, my instructor gave me the maximum amount of demerits allowed, as if to say, yes, you can drive…but you should probably keep practicing to get better at it.
From what you’ll read in the online bio of No Named, has an official roster of one dude named Nice Light and a lot of uncertainty regarding who may or may not be playing with him. Like, I look at the pictures that come along with the music, and unless every member of the band pretty much looks identical to him, I kinda have to assume he’s doing most of what he does DIY, though the bio’s details do mention the possibility of there being other players. Once I headed to the No Named page at Facebook, then I could at least see different faces – but I’m not crazy, right? Everyone on the pictures you’ll find at Spotify are all Nice Light, aren’t they? Anyhow. According to the information you’ll find online, he’s basically been making music since about the time he was eight years old and never stopped. Nice Light is no stranger to things not working out though – to his credits so far, he has been a part of seven different bands that didn’t work out. So I reckon, here we are – essentially doing things on his own now as No Named…and we’ll just have to see where that goes. I have my doubts if I’m being entirely honest with ya, but No Named has kept on going for the past six years or so, according to what’s been released.
I felt like the most obvious piece of the biography online was where it said “he started making classic rock cover songs” – because that’s definitely what you’ll hear at the core of a song like “You Will See A Chance.” The roots of different Classic Rock acts haunt this new single like ghostly spirits of a sound that once was…but I’m not convinced that I’m quite hearing enough to bring it back to life again through what we’ve got here in No Named’s “You Will See A Chance.” Where it’s the music itself, or the vocals, you can really hear how this project leans into the ideas, sounds, and structure of what used to work so well for Classic Rock – and don’t get me wrong, some of it’s alright. There’s work to be done and there’s no doubt about that, but sure, some of this ain’t bad. I think where No Named is going to struggle the most is that almost everything seems borrowed in some way, shape, or form. The guitar towards the start is a little bit ham-fisted, but again, good enough to get the job done…it just sounds a little on the clunky side, like a player that’s way too focused on getting the chords to come out properly, as opposed to the natural smoothness that comes along with knowing a song inside & out. The effect that seems to have on the rest is that “You Will See A Chance” kinda churns along…everything is there in the right place more or less, but that natural, organic fluidity listeners are looking for is replaced by what sounds like overly cautious musicianship. The solo and lead don’t seem to have quite as much of an issue, its more found within the rhythm at the core of this single. Vocally, I don’t mind it…like I said, you can hear the Classic Rock influence, and you couldn’t mistake it for anything else…that’ll either work for’em or against’em as anything stylistic tends to do in music. I eventually came around to the chorus enough though. I don’t know that I’m ready to pronounce it as something everyone out there is gonna like or love, but again, it’s not bad and it’s a good, logical fit/progression from where the verses start the song.
Nice Light’s got a unique voice by comparison to a lot of what’s out there today…you’d be able to find a ton of comparable sounds back in the late 60s and throughout the 70s to follow. That’s where his influences are coming from, and like I’ve been getting at from the very beginning, it sure sounds like it. I don’t know that there’s a ton of room out there for this in today’s music scene, but of course there’s always a way to reach people in the internet age. I do think Nice Light’s got something decent in the main hooks of the chorus…and you never know, that could be enough to get people onboard to listen.
Where “You Will See A Chance” likely has its biggest roadblock ahead is in its length…six minutes-plus is definitely too long for what’s included in this idea…that’s where the expanded length stretches the idea too thin. As a three & a half to four minute long song, I could potentially see listeners find their way into this single…but I do think that more than six minutes is a tall ask and that there’s not enough here in its substance to fully support the large length that it has. It’s one of those things y’all…you live by the sword, you die by the sword…it’s totally okay to use a Classic Rock influence, but it still needs to be somewhat adapted for the palette & attention span of the way people listen to music today. Without that, I think the concern is that No Named is rocking with a sound that may have already had its time.
It ain’t bad…but you’ll probably want more of what No Named could be, and a little less of what it is.
Find out more about No Named from this multi-link here: https://linktr.ee/nonamedmusic
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