"There Is a Place for Us" by Nicolay


“There Is a Place For Us” 
Nicolay

Nicolay’s album City Lights, Vol. 3: Soweto is a fantastic and renewing experience, and I recommend listening to it in its entirety. However, the song I continue to find myself drawn to is the mediative album closer “There Is a Place for Us.”

This plaintive instrumental feels like summer gently fading way to autumn. Warm synths, percussion, and handclaps propel the contemplative song along at a measured pace… drifting along, as though a cloud. The synths drop in like a meteor shower viewed from Earth…  each one a dazzling and dizzying moment. 

Towards the end of the song a restrained yet ecstatic keyboard lifts the listener from of the grips of gravity, briefly soaring above the clouds... leaving the cares of existence below. My only complaint is that this escape always feels much too brief. 

No matter my mood, this song is a calming salve and clears my fretful mind. The idealistic title brings to mind the optimistic, hopeful, but ultimately, sobering “Tomorrow” from West Side Story. Though, Nicolay’s tale ends much happier than the star-crossed lover's. 

The song concludes with a  brief example on the nuances of the Zulu language… leaving with the listener the inclination to go well. 

-Daniel R.


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