THE TOADS review "To be Here" by Nicolej Brink Nicolej's distinctive voice enters sets the scene accompanied by chiming electric piano chords reminiscent of Phil Collins at his peak. A distant guitar enters after this introduction ushering in a beautiful interlude before the vocals continue to to tell their story. A fill at around 2 minutes brings in a slight lift in the feel of the song with layered guitar arpeggios and sustained organ-leading to an accomplished guitar solo to finish the song. The song has a definite verse-verse-verse structure, with interest being maintained by the gradual building of the layers of sound. The playing is faultless and production is excellent. I have to admit that soft rock as a genre is not one that I enjoy greatly, with much of it being very safe and lacking any sort of real depth. However, I felt that this song belonged to the genre only due to the choice of instruments, particularly the slightly dated electric piano sound. The use of repetition in the lyrics and structure made me wonder what a skilled remixer would make of this work and failing that I would enjoy hearing a more stripped down acoustic version. Voice, guitars, organ, simple percussion perhaps? I have a feeling that "To be Here" would become a greater, more powerful song as a result, giving more space in the mix to reflect on its power and losing the "soft" prefix that does it no favours. I like this song and am very impressed by the performance and production but the orchestration and choice of dated synth sounds prevent it from being more relevant. - thetoads 03/08/08

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