Nicholas Chen

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album art for Slow Dance II

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Slow Dance II

Naked Giants

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2/25/2025 public

Absolute screamer of a solo on this one. Really like the tone too, lots of reverb and some tasteful delay.

really leans into that 3/4 feel

album art for Have You Ever Loved A Woman?
Mentioned in Have You Ever Loved A Woman? Derek & The Dominos

11/21/2025 public

sombr can try his hardest (and album art for we never datedwe never dated is a banger) but nothing captures the feeling of being horrendeously down bad like a waltzy blues does


the guitar playing on this song epitomizes the saying "you can't play the blues with a full stomach"
album art for Lover, You Should've Come Over
Mentioned in Lover, You Should've Come Over Jeff Buckley

11/18/2025 public

3/4 heartbreak anthem, like album art for Slow Dance IISlow Dance II
album art for conversation
Mentioned in conversation [0:24] Coastal Club

5/12/2025 [0:24] public

Love the delay/reverb on the guitar strums as well - another waltzey song that does this is album art for Slow Dance IISlow Dance II

For some reason these heavy reverb/delayed strums work very well over songs in 3
album art for Still Got The Blues
Mentioned in Still Got The Blues Gary Moore

4/8/2025 public

On a second listen, this song is in #3/4 . I really love blues phrasings over 3/4, other examples include album art for Aching HeartAching Heart, album art for Slow Dance IISlow Dance II , and album art for Maggot BrainMaggot Brain
album art for Reptilia
Mentioned in Reptilia The Strokes

2/24/2025 public

There's this accompanying riff that he plays during the chorus that's fantastic where he arpeggiates the triads to chords of the chorus. It sounds so angular and distinct.

He definitely has a very distinctive soloing style, especially for a indie rock guitarist. He really likes playing intervals, triads and changes - it's a lot more sophisticated than your basic pentatonic indie rock soloing (which is mostly what I do). Contrast this to the solos in Arctic Monkeys songs (which I still really like!), which are almost all pentatonic, with basic bends - think album art for I Bet You Look Good On The DancefloorI Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor. Even fancier indie rock solos like the one in album art for Slow Dance IISlow Dance II (or album art for Even FlowEven Flow, if we want to expand to grunge) are mostly pentatonic, and draw mostly from the Hendrix/SRV style of playing. What Nick Valensi plays here sounds completely different, and that's cool.