Listen to Nick Brewer’s introspection « I Woke Up Today » featuring Jake Isaac
Nick Brewer’s musical journey is taking a refined turn.
If he came into the spotlight in 2015 with the massive hit « Talk To Me », the East-London MC has shown, over the years, the rare ability to counterbalance easy-listening songs with deep cuts.
He went in the latter direction with his latest single « I Woke Up Today ». After « Don’t Sleep » and « Essentials », « I Woke Up Today » is the latest single of his new EP that bears the same name.
« I Woke Up Today » has a certain sunny winter day vibe, the spacey tune is the perfect playing field for Nick Brewer to show his undeniable versatility.
Those who are familiar with his catalog know that he is capable to accelerate, stack up a lot of words in just a few bars and then proceed to aerate things, sort of like a maestro on a football pitch would know when to speed things up and when to slow the pace of a game down.
Nick Brewer’s technical prowess is even more remarkable that it serves the purpose of deep introspection.
Right after expressing gratitude to the « Father », he quickly concedes that he has been « a little bit slow with the substance ».
You’ll realize that this desire for self-examination is not just self-serving, indeed he also wants to encourage others to see things clearer :
« Get a load of the younger souls in the dungeons, but they got flows in abundance/ I respect that , you got a bag of talent but where do you direct that/ I don’t care for the killer talk, dead that, way too many lives to be led fam »
The second verse echoes the first one cleverly. Grateful to « the Father » in the first verse, Brewer starts the second one by explaining that he had a dream about « his father » – to whom he dedicated his song « Good Man » (2018) off of his Many Moods series.
Greatly inspired, the MC comes up with superb lines that translate an intense internal dialogue, it gets even clearer when one of the song’s quintessential bars hit :
« Devil got games and he wanna play that means that I can’t sleep I ‘m awake ».
In « I Woke Up Today » – the song as in the EP – Nick Brewer refers often to the themes of sleep and awakening.
Inspired by his journey with insomnia, he used imagery and metaphors not only to speaks to the literal but also to the spiritual.
Nick Brewer’s powerful expression is beautifully supported by Jake Isaac’s hauting and ethereal chorus.
With a delicate and soulful tone, the singer brings a striking level of calm, yet the words that he sings can be interpreted in many ways :
« Woke up this morning, didn’t know if I’d see today, pain rolled over she tapped on my shoulder told me she’s still here / I got up and I told her you belong to my yesterday, leave me alone i’m letting you go, I woke up today ».
Taking from his own experience, Nick Brewer manifests the necessity of spiritual effort and the struggle that it is, at times, to maintain sanity. His message speaks to the times in a serious manner.
As lockdown strikes many places of the world, we realize that we are not all equal in front of it. Some of us are even more isolated than they were before, notably due to health issues.
The aftermath of it all is already predicted to be full of damages as we have witnessed an unfortunate opening for « stress and sorrow ».
