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Review – Nick Harrison’s ‘Something Special’

Nick Harrison is a young new artist from the south east of London with his first single ‘Something Special’ set for release on the 24th of November. According to his myspace site his influences include The Police and Bob Marley, yet a more relevant and modern influence would definitely be Maximo Park.

‘Something Special’ is for all intents and purposes a good track. A strong influence of Ska music gives the track a fast tempo, with the drums, base and guitar melding together to make a tune that instantly makes your feet begin to tap. Nick Harrison’s unique, Frank Spenceresque (from “Some Mothers do have ‘em”), vocals give the song a contemporary and progressive feel.

The highlight of the song is undoubtedly its upbeat, uplifting chorus, which seems to be instantly replicable (you’re quite likely to irritate yourself by humming it for a while). The main detractor from what is, on a whole, a good but not great song is the lyrical content. The lyrics speak of a woman who is, as the song would suggest, ‘something special’; however, the lyrics fail to really create a narrative in one’s mind. Nick Harrison attempts to lead us through a night out involving the woman in question and himself, however the song lacks clarity and it is easy to lose track of what he is talking about. References to dance floors and the plight of the size zero model seem rather misplaced and unrelated. The topics seem to fit the bog standard lyrics of modern and “underground” artists and overall this gives the song a generic feel.

The single also contains a bonus track, which is ‘Something Special’ without the singing. This is, as you can imagine, rather dull, and a brief look on the internet reveals quite interesting remixes of Nick Harrison’s work (in particular, ‘Something Special’ mixed with The Specials ‘Ghost Town’). All in all ‘Something Special’ is inoffensive. Its lack of individuality makes it likely to be prone to a mass sing along in indie clubs everywhere.

A listen to the five or six tracks on myspace.com/nickharrisonsongs shows that ‘Something Special’ doesn’t really live up to its name. There are undeniably superior songs performed by Nick Harrison including ‘Summer’, ‘Nothing At All’ and ‘Oi Rude Boy’ which all reveal more about the artist’s style and individuality. The chances are that ‘Something Special’ was chosen as his first release purely due to the catchy chorus that makes it the most memorable, but not his defining, song. Therefore I would suggest to any new listener that judging an artist by his first single would be rather harsh.

Comments

• I hear a one album wonder when I hear this single, although general consensus is that the whole album should be heard to appreciate him.

  But the point of a single is to sell an album, and unfortunately, this fails.

  It isn’t a bad song, but it is repetitive and a watered down version of any of the kook’s songs.

  By website-entertainment on 21.11.2023

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• I am extremely surprised you managed so write so much about such a bland, generic and boring song. For a debut, this is probably the most pointless track on the album. If he continues with songs like these, i wouldn’t be surprised if he disappears into nothingness.

  By Anonymous on 20.11.2023

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