Nicely different to anything else around at the moment, Chances Are sits in a very nice spot of being genre-less. Or do we say they hit numerous genres? Being a three piece band located in three different places, I kind of feel the push and pull of their various environments stimulating in different directions and intentions. This isn’t saying that this is a disjointed effort, though, oh no. This is targeted to be different.

Born Yesterday is a song about over-analysing everything, and thinking about doing so, thereby self-perpetuating the issue, it’s shorter and more commercially-friendly than the rest of the highly intriguing EP it’s from, Asleep At The Wheel Of Love. There’s some brazenly open guitar, a clean sounding riff, which soon finds itself accompanied by some Byrds-esque jangles and keys. A decent drumming performance can help any track, and this one does so well, working nicely with the bass for a quality bottom end sound. They’ve got a challenge too, as the guitar is deliberately setting out to be a beat-missing rebel of an instrument. Again totally deliberate, and intended to bring emotive discord to the vibe. It does that well, giving a distinct need to want to scratch the inside of your head and stop letting those bad voodoo thoughts in to pick over too much. Clever use of composition to subtly bolster the message. Nice work. Well considered song-writing.

Mixed and mastered by Mikey Young, a dream-pop style vocal stays with you, nestled well in the mix, heard but not overpowering. The melody is catchy and the vocal has some good layering that gives me a Weezer kind of thought. In fact yeah, Weezer could do this song and it would sound like they’d written it. That’s meant s a compliment, as this is definitely not a suggestion of anyone paying homage to anyone else.

No vid but that’s all good. Another very solid, pleasingly different, yet pointedly catchy release from Chances Are. This would work well with a video, as it engenders the clear feeling of a story being told – which is what it actually is, so kia kaha. It would work live, most definitely, as would the rest of their stuff, but I think this one could also find its way onto the more commercially friendly radio stations too, such as Hauraki, 99bFM and RadioActive.

It’s out on the Spotty Fly already so you don’t have to wait for release. If you like indie with a clever composition, deceptively catchy yet still unique, you’ll do a lot worse for yourself than give three and a half minutes of your day to give this a listen. Born Yesterday by Chances Are. There. No excuses now.