Music Review – Ricky Duvall ‘Never Gone Through’

Ricky D’s song ‘Never Gone through’ is a very honest and emotional expression of the complexity of love; of loyalty, and broken heartedness. His voice is stylish and handsome, but also very gentle and genuine; alongside the words he is singing, you really believe his story.

It’s a song about building a stronger forever after, the struggles that can bring, and knowing when to walk away. It was difficult to catch the lyrics at certain points, perhaps just the way the gentle nature of the verses are mixed very similarly to the bigger sound of the chorus section – the video that accompanies the track though actually helps a lot with piecing together the parts of the story and the overall theme.

The melody is fantastic. It has a fairly nostalgic sound to it, not familiar, but reminiscent of a time when musicians let the songs write the music, not just throwing together some vocals to cover a backing track. Among much of today’s popular music, this song seems to have originality written all over it. The harmonies are quite reminiscent of classic pop or RnB ballads from the past, in terms of style, and the subtle vocal flicks and bends that Ricky uses are equally nostalgic and really nice to hear.

A beautiful riff runs in the background, throughout the song, and it really brings the whole thing together – a simple addition that definitely helped make this such a memorable and effective piece of music. There’s also the introduction of what sounds like a saxophone, a gorgeous touch, particularly towards the end – the music really builds up with this, the harmonies, the beat, the horns, the riffs; everything falls into place, everything surrounds you. At this point it did genuinely strike me as a pretty great song.

The whole production of the track is actually very effective, it remains sweet and mellow, emotional, but it’s stylish and captivating enough to give the whole thing a reflective and thoughtful feel to it. Ricky D quite clearly puts his heart and soul into his vocal performance, which is really what makes this a genuinely accessible and comforting song. He’s found a style that he loves, not needing to imitate or copy anyone, and it suits him really well.

By Rebecca Cullen

Travelling musician and writer from Manchester, UK.