Nick Hakim’s ‘ALL THESE CHANGES’ Floats On The Breeze

Nick Hakim. Photo supplied.

Today I’m taking a look at ALL THESE CHANGES, a song from Nick Hakim, a US-based neo-soul artist that has gotten the attention of music blogs like Pitchfork and NPR, and is determined to make the world a better place. ALL THESE CHANGES comes off his recently released second album, Will This Make Me Good.

Talking about the album, Nick says, “I feel the people simmering, on our way to the boiling point. There's a lot of madness going on around us and this world can feel so cold. It can get hard to remember what makes it worth it. The people around me and the music I love helps.”

ALL THESE CHANGES floats along - the centrepiece is Nick’s floaty vocals, as he sings about the damage we’re doing to the Earth. “Can you feel our mother raging/she’ll flood us out her heart is flaming/ pretty soon we’ll be underwater” is a mantra for the current times, as the world is finally able to heal just a little bit - though undoubtedly, we’ll undo all that work within mere weeks of ‘normality’ being restored.

The track doesn’t end with a resounding thud, but splutters out - which is how things feel at the moment. We’re living in a world where the candle is starting to flicker, and real change might be near - but if we’re going to do something about it, then we have to keep the energy up. There’s never been a better time to get involved in social movements than right now. The world’s future depends on it.

It’s apt that such a record arrived at a time when people are finally uniting, as we’ve seen with the current Black Lives Matter movement - and hopefully the events of recent weeks, soundtracked by music like this, provides a blueprint for the future. The future is bright, and music like Nick’s is inspiring - it’s just a matter of getting enough people together to spread the same message.