NICK, “If This Is Love” and “What If” (video)
Nick Hagelin’s music has been regularly featured in my blog posts since I first heard it in 2010 on his more straight-forward pop EP Take Off. Since then, Nick has dabbled more on the R&B tip, and rightly so given his far-ranging voice which instantly draws comparisons to Justin Timberlake. But Nick’s sound has always been more direct and street-wise, and recently shifted over to some softer songs in his “AcousticKilla” side, and ones that he didn’t necessarily write.
“What If” (video above) is a beautifully sung classic story of breakup and ‘what if’ things had been different, in this case “what if I had loved you?”. You have to wait a bit for Nick’s falsetto, but it’s there! Thematically, it’s almost like the successor to Nick’s own “Ex Games”, still available as a free Soundcloud download as are “What If” and “If This Is Love”. The latter song puts him into Travis Garland territory with a sexy Latin flavoured number that could mix easily into Travis’ “Easy” (currently riding my chart at #2).
The great thing about these songs is that they show that Nick takes risks, which is probably part of why Streamline/Interscope signed him (and we’ll await the results of that relationship). Do yourself a favour and find out what I’m talking about by downloading all three songs below.
https://soundcloud.com/acoustickilla/nick-if-this-is-love
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