Greetings dearest reader let’s welcome Danish artist Jon Braendsgaard Toft. This multi-instrumentalist’s brand-new studio album, “Brick By Brick”, was released on 1st May. The 12-track album features a wide range of unusual time signatures, funky rhythms, and catchy melodies. Layers of acoustic and electric guitars, bass, drums, percussion, clarinet, and a few flavor-enhancing keyboard sections are among the instruments used. The majority of the songs have harmonies in two or three parts. The album’s lyrics play with science fiction concepts like time travel and space travel while also delving into more realistic subjects like relationships, inner strength, and cats getting into mischief in the yard. Let’s talk more about this album

The album’s title track is “Mr. Johnson”. The song’s opening is this guitar drum mix that will excite you instantly. The song is about a cat named Mr. Johnson. The song describes the cat as a fun-loving companion who is beloved by everyone In the community (”but he’s the king of the neighborhood, people love to do him good”). Apart from playing and napping this cat is very useful and makes sure that there is no rodent to pester anyone(”bringing mice to our door”). The song is entertaining and lighthearted and so are the lyrics. There is a guitar solo mid-song and also towards the end of the song which is very captivating. This song tells you the kind of songs to expect on the album

The next song is the album’s namesake (“Brick by Brick”). The song’s intro is soft and beautiful. The song is about a character who talks about how well and how much work he put in to build his relationship(” We built it brick by brick”). We find out that the relationship didn’t work out (”I have broken what we built, I failed her”). Aside from this sad story, the song teaches listeners to be careful about things we build especially in relationships, which are very fragile and all the work you put into it will go to waste (”these things can break in a heartbeat”). The musical side of the song is also very beautiful with ethereal harmonizing (”these things”). There is a soulful guitar solo mid-song and toward the end of the song that is very breathtaking.

“The world is my playground” is the title of the next song. The song has an upbeat start that captures your attention right away. The song describes a character who has evolved from monkey to man and is somehow still alive while watching these famous people in history with his very own eyes. On the other hand, the song can also mean that the character who was once uneducated has studied and reached the highest level in the field of academics (”thousands of years of history has got nothing on me”). The song is groovy and fun to vibe to. It also has a lovely guitar solo that you will fall in love with

Next is the song “Among Vikings”. The song slows down the album a bit with its slow instrumentation. The song tells an intriguing tale of a strange man who seems to fit a prophesy once told of a person like him, a person whom even the god of lightning Thor held dear (”word is that Thor himself holds him dear”). The character who served this strange man his mead wished to go with this man but he vanished before he could tell this man he wanted to leave with him. The song and its lyrics give you a descriptive and sounds like a seas shanty that people in those times sang and these elements feed into the narrative the song is telling.

Next is the song “Start of something new”. The guitar riff in the beginning is very gorgeous and it keeps building and building till the vocal performance sets in. The song is about a very peculiar story of a group of people who seemed to have volunteered to be on a colony ship. The song reminds me of a film that starred Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence called “Passengers”. Just like in the song, both of these characters volunteered to go on otherworldly expeditions but unlike this song, something happened and one passenger woke up. The character who woke up got so bored and woke up another passenger. The story in the song is very well written and you will be waiting to hear the fate of this character who just woke up in an unfamiliar place

Next is the song “My Mind is playing tricks”. The song has a beautiful guitar intro that will thrill you instantly. The song is a song that encourages people who feel like they are not living life but just going through the motions in life to take heart because things will get better (”everything will work out in the end”). This song oozes positivity and I applaud Jon for sharing this loving and meaningful message with fans. The guitar drum riffs were very captivating for listeners to enjoy

“The new blip” is the next song on the album. The song is a slow type of jam right from the start. The song is like this Matt Damon movie called The “Martian”. The song is a beautiful yet interesting song. With the lyrics, you get to picture the story in your mind’s eye.

Next is the song “worth a try”. This song also has a slow start. The song stresses the importance of a positive attitude in everything and encourages us to do what we can to improve our little corner of the world if it means just singing (” They say that just singing a song changes the world but maybe it’s worth a try”). The song is tender and incredibly beautiful. Jon really gave it his all in this song and the instrumentation is just as impressive

Next is the song called “The Explorers” The song is about a group of explorers who are exploring another planet to start a new life. The song has the atmospheric allure that comes along with it. The song’s structure is very captivating and it will take you through a whirlwind of vast emotions

Next is the song called “Somebody Else’s Bed” The song starts with a delicate and country-like guitar intro “. The song talks about a character who is trying to stay sober before he wakes up in a stranger’s bed. He uses this as a crutch and due to that he’s losing his sanity but he decides to keep at it till he gets the strength to get back to his life. The guitar work in this song is very tender and the vocal performance is very emotive

“Insomnia” is the title of the next song on the album. The opening guitar sound is airy, light, and very beautiful. The song is about a character who is struggling with insomnia, the character is wondering if he should seek medical help but ultimately holds out hope that he will sleep soundly soon. The instrumentation especially the guitar solo was very well done and it will delight you

The last song on the album is called “the ballad of sir na nÓg”. The song opens with some very nice guitar sounds. The song tells a tale about a man who lived with his family, one day, a beautiful lady whose beauty puts all beauty to shame. The character fell in love with this mysterious woman and left his family behind. He spent a long long time with her with her and one day decided to visit his family. Unfortunately for this character, he spent almost 300 years with his wife, he grew lonely and wanted to go home but his love warned him not to stray from her he did, and when he returned home, as his love said, the magic that was keeping him young got stripped away and he aged and found out his family was long gone. There he was, old and alone without his family. This is a sad sad tale that gives off this mystical vibes and you will want to listen to this song in its entirety just to know what happens in the story. This song brings this fantastic album to a close

This was a pure and truly creative and talented endeavor that Jon took listeners on. The songs were very interesting and some of them held very entertaining stories woven in. The guitar work is also something that needs to be applauded because it was terrific and I was left speechless. Jon has created a masterpiece which will never go out of style

Stream the album “Brick by Brick” on Spotify or SoundCloud

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