A debut single is so much more than an attention-grabber, when it’s done right at least. In the very first entry in his discography, singer/songwriter Morten Nygaard is intent on making a big impression with much more than his voice alone, and although he presents a compelling melody with his gilded pipes, it’s ultimately his command of the arrangement that winds up feeling like the centerpiece here. Nygaard’s vocal is pristine and gentle beside the ebb and flow of the unpredictable rhythm of his song “Tomorrow Never Comes,” and despite the challenging nature of the track, this rookie release sounds as full-bodied and complete as something you’d expect to hear from an artist with a lot more miles on the odometer than this young man is sporting.
Emotionality is everywhere we look and listen in this single, and although it’s concentrated around the lyrical substance of the song, I wouldn’t say that “Tomorrow Never Comes” relies on its straightforward poetry to create an identity for itself. On the contrary, this is a performance in which everything from the tone of our singer’s voice to the manner in which he’s marrying harmonies and rhythm in near-perfect fashion has an influence over how we’re to interpret the narrative. Where the typical underground output we see out of both Europe and the United States can sometimes feel like amateur hour, this is an example of someone born for the craft demonstrating both his ambitiousness and his present-day skillset without anything to get in his way.
Nygaard’s singing in “Tomorrow Never Comes” is breathtakingly smooth and delicate beside the instrumentation in the track, but the actual melodies he’s putting forth are as strong as a hurricane-force wind. He isn’t afraid to really put himself out there in a harmony, and because his words match the brawniness of the framework they’re being presented in, we’re able to appreciate his depth as a singer as much as we are his talent for lyricism. It’s difficult making something as stacked as this single is at the rookie-level without sounding like you’re stretching yourself as thin as possible, and yet my man never translates like he’s biting off more than he can chew. It’s the exact opposite, and I think others who hear this song are going to agree with me.
“Tomorrow Never Comes” isn’t a hook-driven piece, but one that introduces us to the personality of its creator in a way akin to a classical offering than anything else. Morten Nygaard is poised and a near-picture of comfortability at the helm of this material, and whether he’s belting out a verse or simply straddling the instrumental vulnerability in the backdrop, there’s never any question as to whether or not he’s chosen the right medium through which to communicate. You can’t teach the kind of charisma he’s firing off with the microphone in his hand for the chorus of “Tomorrow Never Comes,” and I’m definitely quite eager to hear it develop over the course of the next year.
Jodi Marxbury