ROGER SANCHEZ – "Another Chance"

Wasn’t the video to this – featuring a woman wandering around a harsh city with a literal “giant heart” in tow, steadily getting punished for the size of it as she goes – also a minor factor in its success? I seem to remember it was barely ever off Music Video request cable channels, and was a minor talking point (a good friend of mine became obsessed with the character in it in a sappy “I want to meet a woman like that!” kind of way).

This is a weird track too, though. A lot of popular club music at this point didn’t really contain much of an ache, at least not so far as I could ever hear, whereas this does. It’s propulsive enough, but almost has the cold despondency of New Order about it as well. That makes it interesting, but nonetheless it’s still not something I engaged with much at the time, and I can’t imagine that will change now. There’s just not enough going on otherwise. A 6 seems about right.

the video seems more poignant now in the light of events in its not so distant future. People wandering the streets of New York to a soundtrack of obsessive regret and a desire to turn back time.
I love the use of the sample and how it is processed – I didn’t care for the beat at first – it seemed too monotonous – but then Roger Sanchez begins to weave in other rhythms and tones to add subtle variations of melancholy and intimacy. It definitely benefits from the full 7 minutes and in the right circumstances I can imagine this being overwhelming on the dance floor – an unexpected 7 for me

Was this the first big dance hit of the era to do use the song as template for a consciously ‘artistic’ video? I know there were ones with themes beyond somebody lip syncing to the sample – The Launch by DJ Jean springs to mind – but giving club songs storylines is a trope that a lot of otherwise faceless dance records still employ to this day.

Yada yada yada, not my scene, but I do like this one anyway. The video elevates it and the vocal sample exudes a nice air of melancholy.

7.

Never heard of this guy – I assumed he was a European DJ, maybe even a Brit with a Spanish father, so I was surprised to find out he was American. I was also surprised the song sounded familiar as it had no impact on any Billboard chart (not even Dance), but wait, it’s an old Toto track – that explains that.

To me, It sounds much too slight and repetitive to be a number one. Even its own video feels more like a short film with incidental background music than a proper music video. Must’ve been a slow week on the chart. 4/10.

Beautiful song (track?) and one of the best number 1s of the year. Tom is spot on about that double drum hit.

#5 JLucas: Daft Punk’s video for Da Funk from a couple of years earlier has certain similarities.

@JLlucas #5 The video is reminiscent of Da Funk by Daft Punk which was as about 5 years earlier I think?

Anyway, weirdly this song came into my head a couple of weeks ago having not thought about it for at least 10 years. I love it but then I’m a sucker for mid-tempo melancholia, in any genre.

Edit James BC #9 got in there first with the Da Funk similarity

It’s not trying to get anywhere…

I have to add I turned 35 when this was #1.

Hmmm…..it seems to me that the similarities between the two videos are superficial and arise only because one was clearly inspired – if that’s not putting it too generously – by the other. The far-superior ‘Da Funk’ video is tongue-in-cheek (I don’t think any specific meaning or message is intended by any of its visual props or events) and darkly funny. I also find it oddly queasy and unsettling, which may or may not have been Spike Jonze’s intention. By contrast, the “Another Chance” video strikes me as trite and po-faced, its visual metaphor much too bleedin’ obvious to be effective.

Good point Jonathan, like ‘Do You Really Like It’ this is kind of a bridge – in this case between that original French Touch sound and where the likes of Jacques Lu Cont would take it.

I was a casual fan of Roger S productions in the 90s including ‘Get Hi’ (which is essentially just a filtered loop of Brass Construction’s ‘Movin’), ‘Release Yo’Self’ as Transatlantic Soul and some of his remixes (including for Jamiroquai). I found ‘Another Chance’ too light(weight) though and preferred his earlier stab at more commercial success ‘I Never Knew’ (video contains vampires) but was glad that like Van Helden he’d bagged a chart-topper.

I remember the video well. Were the two leads well known actors? The man who takes her for a coffee but runs from the big heart looks especially familiar, probably from ‘Friends.’

One of the final perfect number one singles IMO, and one of only five or six of this decade. The score aside, Tom’s review is one of my favourites as it sums up the angle I like to give the song, especially in its album version, the resigned glow, the duration proving the author’s imposed emotional static. There is a light that never goes out. It adds up to a 10 from me.

I’m commenting because I’ve been playing First Contact quite a bit recently. Had no other major hits but a lot of enjoyable stuff, especially early on (the big beat-come-electro Computabank especially)