Brighton based band, Wave Chase, have just released their single, Second Time, and we’ve been taking a few listens to this delightful and catchy indie rock song here at the Send Me Your Ears studio today.
Before we even launch into a discussion about the song itself, we must point out that one of the things that particularly endeared us to this group was their humour and self deprecating attitude. For example; “our Mums like the tune…but we wanna branch out to other Mums who might also dig it!” This was a refreshing change from some of the biographies that we read and before we even heard the song, Wave Chase had won us over with their witty and candid press release.
‘Second Time’ lyrically is a note to self. The moral of the song is to tell yourself not to pursue a relationship that is not reciprocated and to move on.
Starting with a distant filtered guitar that fades into the foreground, a quick drum fill and suddenly you’re straight in to the full band sound. The moment the full sound comes in, we all shouted “NICE” in unison! We could hear straight away that this song has hit appeal.
There’s some great fuzz effect on the vocals and a lovely delay effect on the guitar. We especially like the panned side to side guitar strums that lead into the chorus. They really engage the listener and let you know that it’s time to join in and sing along. When that chorus blasts in, it’s incredibly catchy and an instant earworm!
This is a song with great development. The rise and fall is done to perfection and the soundscape of this entire song is truly dynamic. Sitting at just over 2 and a half minutes long, you could foolishly lump this track into the punk category, but it has so much more to it than that. For a two and half minute song it seems crazy to describe it as “anthemic” but there’s something about it that is so rousing and uplifting that it seems the right word to use.
From a production perspective, we feel that a boost around 100Hz and another around 240Hz would fill out the low end a little. To our ears, the song feels slightly heavy in the mids so a small cut centred around 700Hz would reduce some honky tones. Finally, a wide boost centred around 9kHz would add some brightness and bring out some of the cool effects used on the percussion and vocal tracks.
Second Time is an exciting and exhilarating song which captures all the feelings of early 20s unrequited love in a two and a half minute authentic ride of indie rock. Ones to watch, for sure.