Nicola Thoms – Beautiful Mind (single)
Nicola Thoms – Beautiful Mind
URL: www.nicolathoms.com
The single “Beautiful Mind” from East London born Nicola Thoms is a deeply personal cut culled from experiences with her beloved grandfather that never risks the sort of sloppy sentimentality we’d find in a lesser artist. Instead, it’s a moving and genuine tribute to an influential force in the young singer and writer’s life she takes on with every bit as much of the same eloquence and self confidence she illustrates in her vocals and the song’s musical arrangement. Thoms is an educated singer, but her academic strengths never undercut the immense soulfulness and depth she communicates with each phrase and the lessons she’s learned from iconic vocal heroes like Stevie Wonder, Amy Winehouse, Lianne La Havas, and Candi Staton, to name a few, emerge from her own work in distinctive and individualistic ways. This 2018 release marks the beginning of an awesome and lengthy career to come for this powerful performer.
There’s a slinky elegance to this song immediately announcing itself and Thoms’ vocal underscores its intent without ever upsetting the song’s balance. Her wide vocal range allows her to freely roam from crystalline highs back into sensual lows without ever seeming to strain. Her phrasing, likewise, reflects a mix of technique and passion few performers can achieve. It’s an impressively artful and focused performance from the first. The light percussion keeps the song’s pensive groove tethered to musical earth while the effervescent contributions from a small assortment of electronic instruments warmly accentuate the recording. There are occasional lulls built into the song’s arrangement that, if nothing else, make the song’s structural strengths leap out more for listeners. It’s a solidly constructed song from first note to last and avoids any of the sideshows or pitfalls common to this type of high end pop.
INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/nicola_thoms/
The song definitely owes a heavy debt to Thoms’ avowed soul and R&B influences, but she’s struck upon her own formula for invoking that in her music and the lyrical content certainly extends itself far beyond the typical purview of this sort of material. As noted earlier. Thoms writes convincingly and without melodrama about a life that made a deep impact on her own and, like the best singers and writers do, such a song ends up saying more about the artist behind its creation than its nominal subject whilst holding our attention tight the entire time. Her intimacy and sensitivity dealing with the material help it resonate with any listener; you may have never known a grandparent to be this meaningful to you, but surely someone has whom you’ve lost in some manner. Nicola Thoms’ “Beautiful Mind” is a fantastic single from a performer who does it all – writing and singing – with such spot on verve she leaves countless peers and contemporaries sounding lacking in her wake.
SPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/track/4gbpso3Gn4ncT7zwKKyRXX?si=1mZU_3VbRS-MYLyjGYsKIw
Mindy McCall