Album Review—Love Is

Love, in All Its Forms: A Journey Through Terry Lee Nichols’s New Album

Terry Lee Nichols’s latest album, Love Is, is not just music, but an exposition of Love. Without defining love outright, Nichols adopts a surprising approach of inviting his audience to discover its meaning for themselves. Talking of the intent underlying this album, Nichols describes it as an effort “to convey the strength and sentiment of love through music.” In the process, he draws on the many forms of love that have shaped his life: romantic, familial, and platonic. Such a profound theme and strategy make the album both deeply personal and universally relatable.

Love is a complex energy. At times, it becomes a powerful force to uplift us with immense joy; at other times, it can also break us with sorrow. In his album, Love Is, Nichols does not create a simple, sentimental tribute. On the other hand, it is an honest, nuanced meditation on the ties that “bind us, move us, and shape the way we live and relate to the world.” This thematic richness is the principal characteristic that sets the album apart from other one-dimensional romantic or new-age releases.

Musically, Love Is is rooted in Nichols’s modern-classical and cinematic style, with a strong focus on piano that is expanded by orchestral textures, ambient pads, and subtle electronic elements. His composition sounds serene, letting the emotional themes unfurl naturally. In addition, the themes are also structured with classical precision. This balance is rare to find in contemporary instrumental music, as many artists tend to lean too heavily on atmosphere at the cost of composition, or vice versa. What we first admire in Nichols’s work is the genuine compositional integrity while still being accessible, meditative, and emotionally evocative.

The New Age and Neo-Classical music domains are quite crowded today. However, Love Is shines through in terms of its honesty and scope. The masterly music rewards deep, attentive listening while setting the listeners in a contemplative mood. Love Is is a generous composition rich in its emotional range and an unprecedented mission in inviting the listeners to find their own meanings.

The Artist And His Journey

Terry Lee Nichols is an accomplished artist with a line of achievements, speaking of his musical expertise in high terms. His journey is eclectic, as are his compositions. He learnt Composition and Theory at Florida State University with an MFA from CalArts and doctoral studies at Brandeis. He earned a strong grounding in Western classical tradition. Throughout his musical career, his works spanned diverse interests while he has explored electronic music, jazz, world music, and even commercial scoring. Thus, he holds a broad palette in terms of his compositions.

Before making music his full-time career, Nichols built a successful software company. Such a kind of diversification helped him gain a broad perspective on life, love, and art. After selling that business, he returned fully to his first passion, namely music. All of his albums reflect his diverse background.

In the contemporary instrumental scene, Nichols has been highly recognized with nominations and awards, including Zone Music Reporter’s Best Neo-Classical Album nomination (2016), multiple ZMR and One World Music Radio awards, and chart-topping releases like The Pale Blue Dot. In fact, we see him as an established and respected voice in the modern neo-classical and new-age music world. Across his compositions, he refuses to replicate formulas. On the other hand, he invests in his rigorous training and emotional honesty to create music in a careful fashion that appeals to his audience in all its genuineness and sincerity.

Love Is . . . And How It Impacts Us

Love Is is a meticulously sequenced musical journey designed to reflect love in its several forms and moods. Nichols’s own description points out to us that Love has an amazing power to connect, uplift, and wound. Such an emotional honesty is evident in his music itself.

Listening to the album, we perceive a cinematic narrative in music without words. The tracks of this album rise and fall in intensity, and the tones shift from tender to exuberant. In the process, the listener is invited to see their own relationships and memories reflected in these compositions. In that way, Love Is sounds like a musical storytelling, pushing the artist’s efforts into the thematic and emotional territory, making his work a distinctive accomplishment.

1. Is This All Just a Dream? (Moon River Variations)

Nichols takes an unconventional approach to creating a cinematic opening by weaving together the familiar sounds of Moon River into an original narrative that is introspective, too. His gentle musical phrases and subtle harmonic shifts suggest the elements of nostalgia and longing.

2. Friendship

The second song is a bright and warm composition that feels like an open-hearted conversation between piano and soul. The lyrical lines and unhurried tempo bring back the memories of old companions sharing stories by firelight.

3. Lying Next to You

The third one is a tender and deeply personal piece suggestive of quiet intimacy. The masterly composition creates an apt mood for the theme, sounding like a whispered voice of a beloved one breathing beside you in the dark, letting us perceive stillness and connection.

4. Morning Glory

This is a short and radiant piece meant to greet the day with optimism. The composition evokes the scene of sunlight streaming through a window, while the steady harmonic bases throughout help anchor the music in gentle realism. The purpose seems to be celebrating the small and dependable joys of life.

5. I Remember Her Smile

This track is built on a theme of fond remembrance. Nichols skillfully balances the dichotomous elements of the piano notes to create an emotional arc that sounds like browsing through some old photographs and cherishing some of the best memories of life and an intimate relationship.

6. Finding Annie

This piece sports a strong narrative quality, turning almost cinematic in its scope. The piece moves forward like a search through musical landscapes and finally blossoms into a more confident and resolved melody, becoming a metaphor for rediscovery and emotional reunion.

7. Trinity

The music in Trinity resonates with the spiritual idea, subtly relating it to life and existence. Rich chords and layered phrases bestow this track a ceremonial gravity, while the subtle melodies help tie the movements together.

8. Lullaby

Though this track sounds simple, the comfort it delivers is profound. The melodies rock the listeners in a gentle fashion like a cradle. I found this piece as an emotional exhale in the album. The suggestions that surface through the music are those of rest and trust.

9. We’ve Had a Good Life

The ninth one is a track of gentle retrospection, sounding like a closing toast to shared experiences. The mature and steady progression of the notes embraces the theme of gratitude. We come across a sense of acceptance of a life well-lived and eventually shared without any regret whatsoever.

10. Nella Fantasia

Nichols adopts a sensitive approach to composing this track. With its predominant classical elements, these charming notes carry lyrical beauty and lend a contemplative mood to the album. While the melodies progress in an unhurried fashion, the listeners get to adequately focus on every single nuance of the melody.

11. The Winds of Time

The album closes with a reflective song that also sounds expansive. The kind of progression we come across in these melodies mimics the passage of time with recurring cyclic patterns. The listeners are left with powerful and enduring memories and impressions, ultimately made to cherish a superior understanding of what true love is.

Take‑Away

The startling emotional honesty of the composition is the most striking element I find in this album. While the powerful and thoughtful music becomes a treatise on love, its several forms, and its joys and sorrows, the artist succeeds in conveying the power of love to bind us and also break us. His own words about the album, “Love is a profound and intricate emotion… defined by deep affection, attachment, and care”, are clearly noticed in every single chord. The music talks to your heart in a graceful and intelligent fashion. If you wish to discover the power of love – the force that gives a better meaning to life – this is a must-listen album of exceptional quality and appeal, rare to find in contemporary music.

Website: https://www.terryleenichols.com/