Singer/songwriters are owning the world of popular music right now, and while there are plenty of interesting dispatches coming out of the American underground, fans of the movement would be wise to take a peek at Denmark’s Morten Nygaard this winter, whose debut single “Tomorrow Never Comes” is rocketing into prominence (and for good reason). Nygaard leads the charge in this track with what could be one of the most inviting vocals I’ve listened to in any pop song this January, and while he’s a relative unknown in the states right now, I see that changing as he keeps making music as immersive as “Tomorrow Never Comes” is.
The melodies in this track are particularly fragile, but they’re no greater a source of vulnerability as the singing is on its own. While the instrumental foundations of “Tomorrow Never Comes” are worthy of accolades, they’re really just that – a foundation, a canvas, if you will, atop which Nygaard can develop a lyrical narrative like few others in his peer group can these days. He’s got a presence at the mic that makes me want to hear more, and if he’s this good now, who knows how epic he’ll be in just a few short years.
These harmonies are rather unconventional, especially for the tone Nygaard is going forward with, but I love the way they’re shaped by the rhythm of the music. Instead of putting all of his stock in the melodic faceting of this single, I think it was pretty smart of him to balance the parameters of the story he’s telling between all of the different elements of the mix, including the physicality of the drums. “Tomorrow Never Comes” has a hint of optimism I don’t hear in straight vocal pop, and it’s because of the full-bodied dynamic its creator has afforded us.
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There’s nothing hesitant about Morten Nygaard’s thrusting vocal delivery, and in the chorus, he shows us that the muscularity of the melodies he sings to us can get more pronounced anytime he sees fit. His versatility alone makes him a spellbinding act, especially within the confines of a pulsating ballad like “Tomorrow Never Comes,” and if put into the right circumstances I personally can’t think of any material he wouldn’t be able to make his own. Time will tell for sure, but I think this is a singer/songwriter we can count on for an inventiveness pop lives and dies by.
I’m excited to hear how Morten Nygaard is going to cultivate his identity in the future, but just with what he’s given us to work with here, I think it’s undebatable that he’s got the right combination of moxie and harmony-centric compositional skills to produce for both European and American audiences in 2022. This is an important crossroads in the history of pop, and with a singer/songwriter like this one at the forefront of an exciting revolution in craftsmanship, listeners can rest assured that content like “Tomorrow Never Comes” is just the beginning of an incredible, professional campaign.
Clay Burton