San Antonio band, Onism E, have just released their latest single, It’s Not Over, and we here at the Send Me Your Ears studio have been taking a few listens today.
It’s Not Over is a song about the struggle to stay present and strong during difficult times. We particularly loved the line “sometimes it feels like healing takes too long to start”.
It’s Not Over fades in gently on dreamy guitars, reminding us a little of ‘Albatross’ by Fleetwood Mac. The song has some fantastic rise and fall in it and we particularly loved the countless builds that it has, each one making you just a little bit more excited about the song.
There are some beautiful incidental guitar fills, which then lead to a solo at the end of the track which is interspersed with vocal lines. The guitar playing, provided by Chris ‘Lefty’ Vargas, is superb.
The thing that we were most drawn to about this track was the lead vocals. Provided by Eline Chavez, the vocals give the song a real edge and add to the interest and character of the track immensely.
Eline’s vocals are powerful, confident and versatile. At times we were reminded of Dana Fuchs, and at other times there was a hint of Tina Turner. Eline has that superb blues vocalist skill of being able to make the lines sound completely improvised and just fit however the mood takes her. (for example, the line “and I haven’t got a clue”).
We loved this way the whole song sounds so distant and dreamy. To our ears, a fairly wide boost around 70Hz would thicken up the low end nicely. A small but wide boost in the high mids and highs centred around 9kHz would add some brightness to the backing track. Currently, the vocal sibilance is the only part of the sound that is filling out the top two octaves. A final thought would be that in our opinion, the fully open hi-hat in the opening of the track and a few other places didn’t seem to fit the overall gentle feel of that section of the song.
It’s Not Over is a quality blues-rock track from a band with a superb sound and a truly unique and exciting vocalist with a soulful voice that was born to sing. More please!!