SINGLE REVIEW: NIA NICHOLLS - IF YOU WERE A SONG

Returning to the #TEAMw21 radar with something a little different is Nia Nicholls with her new single "If You Were a Song" which is primarily a piano ballad, yet still manages to incorporate percussion ,pedal steel and some lovely backing vocals. It may start humbly with just a piano but it has definite aspirations to become a phones in the air classic in the later sections, with its synth like strings.

It's nearly ten years since we first met Nia in the forerunner to the Paddock Stage at Buckle & Boots, during which time she has laid a number of different excellent singles on us and this one equally has its charms. One little quirk that has survived our association over the years is Nia's habit of slipping in a little spoken element.

There is some heartfelt writing on display in this song and some idiosyncratic phrasing at times in the first verse, played out over just a piano refrain.

"Isn't it funny how rainbows appear, after a treacherous storm?

And even throughout, the darkest of nights, we know the sun will still shine that morn

I guess what I'm saying, is that you remind me, of beauty and all that felt pain

I know you don't want to burden my ears, but honey, you don't need to hide away"

Top use of the word "treacherous" and quite possibly the first use of "Morn" in a song in the last 100 years! The final line hints that this relationship has some unusual aspects to it.

The chorus sees Nia expressing her feelings in the most poetic of ways, none of which include the songs title.

"If you've got the baggage then I want to claim it

If you were a painting then I'd want to frame it

Don't second guess any snide remarks they make

If you were a planet then you'd be the moon

Because baby, my tide is pulled in by you

Don't doubt yourself for a second, you wondrous flame

Because you could be brand new in shiny fresh paint

But I don't think I would love you the same"

In many ways it is a most curious chorus, there is the neat play on words with "baggage", then there is the astronomically clunky, moon being a planet, when it's really a satellite, which we realise, does not scan as well. There are also allusions to "snide remarks" to suggest that Nia's partner might not be universally appreciated in the manner that she does. Regardless of that, the swooping musicality of the plush string sound as the chorus progresses gives it the feel of classic song from a bygone era

Throughout Nia's career she has always been something of a romantic, and the second verse once more shows a dramatic level of devotion.

"I know life hasn't treated you well, but baby you know that I will

And God forbid time pulls us apart, you know I'll be here for you still

How I wish you could see yourself through my eyes, maybe then you'd come to see

That nobody sees you for what you've been through, but how you turned out to be"

It is only on the final visit to the chorus that Nia eventually uses the title of the song

"If you were a song, then you'd be my favourite

If you were a seashell then I'd want to save it

Trust me because you know - I'm never wrong"

Before leaving us with one final heartfelt expression as she adjusts the lyrics on the final verse

Don't doubt yourself for a moment, cos a moment's too long

You could be just like the others, all of my past lovers

But then I wouldn't be writing this song"

The final lyrics come as a mic drop finale, reveal to the song.

Nia Nicholls If You Were A Song is released 12/6

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