Review By Ricky Frankel
Last year, skate-punk fans (including me) were fawning over Cigar’s second album The Visitor. But it seemed like a lot of those same fans missed the release of the UK’s On A Hiding To Nothing’s debut full-length, We’ll Probably Be Fine when it originally came out in 2021. For some reason it was a pretty “under the radar” release. What a crime!
A couple of the stand-out tracks on We’ll Probably Be Fine are undoubtedly “Try Not To Worry”and “Don’t Make Eye Contact.” “Try Not To Worry” is where you hear On A Hiding To Nothing jamming out, not only as a band, but more so as a finely tuned machine. The tune is held together by the guitar leads that feature high octaves that slide all over the place. They eventually lead into some very crunchy palm-muting during the verses. The big surprise here though is the band’s three-part harmonies during the choruses. They are so amazingly in sync I had a hard time believing that they weren’t “fixed up” during the recording process. After watching the band perform it live, I can confirm that these vocal harmonies are in fact genuine. “Don’t Make Eye Contact” features some massive, blaring drums and some high-treble and intricate guitar leads. Once again, the band’s three-part harmonies make an appearance to back up the lead vocalist’s impressive higher singing. But what about the bass? Both tracks actually start out with super-fast and complicated bass lines. The riffs and accents from the bass are indeed the remarkable backbone of We’ll Probably Be Fine
On A Hiding To Nothing do veer off into more of a pop-punk direction as well. The song “Stella” isn’t as swift and musically complicated as the other tracks on this record, but it does have one of the catchiest melodies. The tempo is more “middle of the road” as well. The guitar and bass parts are choppy, but the drums are just as aggressive as they are on the rest of the album. Interestingly, the lead singing soars quite a bit and the backing vocals during the choruses are these traditionally-rock and roll oriented “ooh’s.” They’re a very nice little addition to this track.
For a first full-length, this is one hell of an effort on the part of the members of On A Hiding To Nothing. While it doesn’t “reinvent the wheel,” We’ll Probably Be Fine is a fantastic, modern contribution to the skate-punk subgenre. Do not wait any longer to give it a listen. It rocks!
You Can listen to the album here.)