Review by LarryG
3 stars out of 4
Sadly, Chance seems to be out of print. It's well worth the effort to
seek it out in used record stores. It's a sad commentary on the kind of music that rates
with record companies and radio programmers that Chance wasn't even a moderate success.
Chance certainly isn't avant-garde or inaccessible. It's great, fun very listenable rock.
The Rave-ups had previously made a decent record, with more of a country flavor, called
Town and Country. They had appeared in a Molly Ringwald movie and seemed ready for a
breakthrough. Their bad luck was that the music happened not to fit easily within any
obvious musical category. Chance had two excellent singles. Respectfully King of Rain is
psychedelic rock interestingly depecting a dream state. She Says(Come Around) is an
exhilarating rocker. Singer Jimmer Podrasky was a gifted writer, succeeding in a number of
different types of music. Smile is a great country rock ballad which a simple
chorus,"a smile can turn the world around", that can break your heart. Chance
was named for Podrasky's young son and Podrasky shows a joyful sense for kids on the
very fun Tinker Tommy where Podrasky takes on the character of Tommy boasting, "I can
eat more ice cream than you've ever seen." The Rave-ups are appropriately named,
making juiced up, well played loose rockers that don't take themselves too seriously, like
Faint Sense of Success and The Best I Can't. It's a shame they couldn't find success.
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