Lamenting in one verse, optimistic in the next, Morten Nygaard comes across as a man as conflicted as he is certain of his own mortality in the new single “Trespassing,” and though a lot of his longtime listeners are already aware of his multidimensionality as a songwriter, this is by far the most accessible of his three main releases to debut to date. Nygaard has a straightforwardness with the microphone that is something to appreciate, but it’s in his use of complexities that he scores the most points with this critic in the immersive and intriguing “Trespassing.”
The texture of the guitar strings, themselves a signature component of the Morten Nygaard sound, pulsates under the weight of the verses as if to add some punctuation to whatever statements our singer is making with his words, and rather than this overwhelming the sonic depth of the single, it only makes the lyrics more tangible to the listeners. There’s nothing worse than an overly stacked concept for a pop song, but this is presented to us so fluidly that one is inclined to use words like progressive when trying to describe the aesthetical roots of what “Trespassing” is made of.
Nygaard’s voice is never alienated by the backing band in the name of creating a sexier hook – honestly, I can’t really picture this track having the openness that it does with anyone else at the mic other than him. He’s putting his own stamp of vulnerability and comradery with the audience on this performance that no one else could have, and when compared side by side with the first pair of singles that I heard out of his camp, this is the most mature and centered on a theme. I like when this guy gets personal, and he isn’t afraid to get exposed in this piece.
I like that the urgency of the verses is never dictated by the tempo of the melodies or even the pacing of percussion, but instead allowed to exist almost independently from the other elements in this song. That’s a lot harder to present than it might sound on paper, given all of the working parts that Nygaard is bringing together for “Trespassing,” but you wouldn’t be able to guess as much just from listening to how solidly he’s able to put the concept into play for us in his latest single.
“All My Love” already got the world curious about who Morten Nygaard is, but I think that this is going to be the track that brings a lot of mainstream credibility to his name and future output. His singer/songwriter skills are on full display in this performance, and while I believe he’s got a darker side to his lyricism that he hasn’t even begun to crack into, he’s giving us everything a sensitive pop poet is expected to in “Trespassing” and even a touch more. I’ll be eagerly awaiting his next dispatch, and at this rate, I’ll be joined by many other fans as well.
Rachel Townsend