OneSelf Featuring Mario Deschenes – Album Versions ‘N’ Not 8 (Album Review)

Today’s review features the artist OneSelf featuring Mario Deschenes and his new album “Versions ’N’ Not 8”. This is the eighth album by OneSelf. OneSelf describes this as “an album of respect, for his influences and for himself.” And notes his “musical production has become more refined” over the course of recording and producing his eight studio albums.

This new album “Versions ’N’ Not 8” contains 16 songs and there are 20 accompanying videos that the artist has made to go with the album, which just dropped on April 15, 2025. We will just be reviewing the album today.

OneSelf describes himself as a multi-disciplinary artist proficient as an Author, Composer, Performer, Producer, Guitarist, Painter, Videographer and Photographer. As OneSelf says about the album, “I am at the service of my musical creations. This album, Versions ‘N’ Not 8, is the best version of myself, of my own identity.” This album was made for “the pleasure of creating, the pleasure of sharing.”

So let’s have a listen …

First Season (Opening Theme) is the opening track. It has what sounds like a person walking through the first track, or maybe that’s just a bad drum sound? The track revolves around a very simple rhythm guitar track, but is also very chaotic, with lots of other instruments and sounds added on top.

This instrumental opening is followed by 4 songs from the artist’s musical past. “This Is Her Eyes,” “Tell Her Tell You (As I Told You Too),” “(Your Eyes) Eyes Of a Life,” and “Forget Her 2.” The artist describes this opening section of the album as “re-visiting old songs, giving them new life.”

“This Is Her Eyes” sets forth another simple rhythm guitar chord riff which is the backbone of the song. There is the sound of a piano vamping along with the guitar riff. And male vocals, which are so low in the mix as to be mostly unintelligible. Honestly, the track sounds like a big sonic mess.

The third song “Tell Her Tell You (As I Told You Too)” kicks off with a banging single-note guitar riff quickly devolving into the song’s chordal structure. Again, the vocals are way too low in the mix to be understood. There is the faint echo of a keyboard playing throughout the song.

The fourth song “(Your Eyes) Eyes of a Life” has a simple chordal riff setting the pace for the song but again the vocals, which are not good, cannot be understood. The vocals are more like an off-pitch drone sound.

The last song of the first section of the album is titled “Forget Her 2”. It starts with a drum beat. This is the first song on which I can hear and understand the vocals. I like the radio voice that comes in during the middle of this song; at least it makes it interesting. Followed by a keyboard vamp. The song fades over the sound of the keyboard and driving drum sounds. At least this song was decent to listen to.

The second section of the album begins with the second instrumental piece, Entre Deux Raisons (Middle Theme), and “gives us a foretaste of what’s to come.” The instrumental track is pleasant enough to listen to, and I like how the song fades out on the sound of church bells.

In this second section we are introduced to 4 new songs, “Does This Thought,” paired with three more recent songs, “Your Mother, My Mother – In – Law,” “Letter To My Soul” and “I Need Her Help (I’m So Busy)”.

“Does This Thought” has understandable vocals. But I’m not digging the voice. Or the vocal rap in this song. These songs are all built around very simplistic chord progressions and song structures. They are not interesting.

The next song is “Your Mother, My Mother – In – Law” has a simple drum beat, maybe keyboard generated, over a dreamy keyboard riff and male vocals which just don’t sound good. But at least you can understand them.

I’m a bit taken aback by the simple chord progressions and song structures. They’re just not working on this album. Don’t get me wrong, there are many songs I love with simple chords and song structures, Dylan’s All Along The Watchtower comes to mind. But on this album, it is a sign of poor songwriting skills.

“Letter To My Soul” is another simple chord vamp, with a lazy male voice singing a tired melody over what sounds like a two-chord progression. Normally, there are a lot of cool instrumental solos in a two chord vamp song, but not here.

“I Need Her Help (I’m So Busy)” – starts off with an interesting guitar riff only to fall back into a simple chord progression to drive the song. The lead guitar in this song just follows the chords around and is not interesting. The vocals are atrocious.

The third section of the album kicks off with another instrumental song, Simple Fonction De L’Intermède (Ending Theme). Although this song does have some type of midi-keyboard vocal words. It’s a very short song.

“Last part of 4 songs, French this time, it doesn’t take anything away from Versions ‘N’ Not 8, on the contrary, it ends the album with sound effects, as he began his journey of album creation, he continues his sound research which is an integral part of the 4 songs. La Souffrance (Mène à L’Espoir), inspired by an old friend. La Dame Seule Au Salon, in memory of his mother’s experience. L’Éveilleur Éclairé (The Enlightened Awakener), a touch of nostalgia for the past. And, Versions et Pas (A La Fin) a very personal take on family…..”

“La Souffrance (Mène à L’Espoir)” has another simple chord progression and the male vocals are in French. But again, the singing does not sound good. Overall, thetrack is somewhat better than most of the other songs.

The thirteenth song “La Dame Seule Au Salon” is also sung in French. I like the female vocal that kicks of the song, but it’s gone as soon as it begins, followed by the bad sounding male vocals without any sense of melody. The vocals are very monotone and monotonous throughout the album. I like the sound effects at the end of the song.

The next song is “L’Éveilleur Éclairé (The Enlightened Awakener).” The background track here has a bit of R&B sound, but quickly devolves into a boring repeating two chord vamp. The vocals are again sung in French.

“Versions et Pas (A La Fin)” kicks off with a refreshingly nice drum beat and a nice rhythm guitar vamp. At least it’s more interesting than the other songs. But the vocals, imagine a drunk Irish bloke on a monotone rant. That is the end of the album.

However, there is one bonus track: “Unicitude (Unique Link)” has a nice driving bass line, but again the vocals ruin the track. There are faint sounds of a keyboard playing a riff that might be interesting if it could be heard.

Overall, this album needs a lot of work before it can be re-released. The vocals need to be re-sung. My advice is to hire a good singer to lay down vocals in a studio. But the instrument sections of each track also need to be redone. The guitar parts could probably be brought down in the mix, they are overpowering all the other instruments. The drum sounds appear to be done on a keyboard, maybe use a real drummer next time. The piano can barely be heard on most of the songs, so I would bring that up in the mix. I like some of the sound effects the artist mixes into the beginnings and endings of some of the songs, just be careful not to overuse such effects. The album needs to be better edited and remixed, after it is re-recorded, particularly the vocals. But I would just start from scratch and re-record the whole album fresh if it were my project.

SCORE/Poor: This album is rated Poor. It is just not interesting musically and the male vocals are atrocious – monotonous, monotone, and off-pitch, when they can be heard over the mix. The production on this album is sub-par as is the mixing and editing on the album. The album is just not very good and I would have a hard time, in its current state, recommending it to anyone. Much love, Beth

[We rank singles, EPs, and albums on a scale of Poor, Mediocre, Good, Excellent, and Outstanding]

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