‘Take A Chance With Me’ By NIKI

Is an underrated modern day early 2000s Indie/Alternative rewind song.

The weather on campus has dropped, the leaves have fallen, and we have finally lost that summer heat. Midterms should be coming to an end for some students, but that doesn’t mean we should lose out on some diverse listening. Here’s a potential artist to add to your fall/winter playlists.

NIKI, Nicole Zefanya, put out her second album “Nicole” earlier this year during the summer time. The album provided a cool and carefree feeling but also gave the listener a glimpse into some stories of her school years. Most of the songs on this project were originally written during that time; “Take A Chance With Me” being one of those songs originally written in 2015.

“Take A Chance With Me” is a breath of fresh air, an unbreakable seal of bittersweetness and pays homage to old 2000s songs. Being the final song on the album, this provides the listener with a new beginning as opposed to the songs before, which were chapters closing of her past.

NIKI is in a space of excitement as she sings in a curious way describing her new lover through each line. The song introduces itself with a normal-paced electric guitar, with what sounds like hints of a piano, or a harp. 

This smoothly sets the mood as she sings, “His laugh you’d die for, His laugh you’d die for. / The kind that colors the sky,” she sings, “Heart intangible, slips away faster than dandelion fluff in the sunlight.”

As the verses are pretty long, each approach themselves as build-ups with a faster pace, as she sounds more excited through each word sung, “And he’s got swirls of passion in his eyes. /Uncovering the dreams, he dreams at night. /As much and hard as he tries to hide, I can see right through, see right through.”

Verse two still has the same build but with replacement sounds of ukulele strums, and what sounds like a güiro sound instrumental. 

NIKI sings, “His voice you’d melt for, he says my name like I’ll fade away somehow if he’s too loud. / What I would give for me to get my feet back on the ground, head off the clouds,” she sings with a quicker pace, “I laugh at how we’re polar opposites. / I read him like a book, and he’s a clueless little kid. / Doesn’t know that I’d stop time and space/ Just to make him smile, make him smile.”

As the chorus begins, NIKI’s isolated vocal comes to focus, a vulnerable yet key moment as she is wondering why they both can’t be open and honest. 

“Oh, why can’t we for once. / Say what we want, say what we feel? /Oh, why can’t we for once/ Disregard the world and run to what you know is real? / Take a chance with me,” NIKI sings. 

You can easily notice a melody that is uncanny to a Liz Phair song called “Why Can’t I?” if you have a good ear.

She then goes on to sing in verse three, continuing to describe all the things that draw her to this boy. Especially the fact that he thinks love is overrated, she shows more confusion in this verse. The bridge could give the listener the image of, “admiring someone from across the room,” but she also dances through this bridge with safety towards her lover, only to later complete the final chorus once more, ending the song with ease.

You can listen to “Take A Chance With Me” on streaming platforms such as Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube, and listen to the full-length album “Nicole” as well.