Nicholas Altobelli's Without A Home

This one caught my eye, late in the game, because of the guests...John Dufihlo from the Deathray Davies and Salim Nourallah, that Dallas-centered Texas pop mafia still making exquisite power pop without, as far as I can tell, anyone's encouragement. Nicholas Altobelli is, indeed, a member of that scene, a native of Southern California, but a Dallas-ite since fourth grade. Without A Home is his fourth album...a lovely, effortless thing, wistful and softly song, but full of big shimmering hooks.

No Depression may have gotten the best read on this album, in the February "stack" reviewed by Lee Zimmerman (who is also a contributing editor at Blurt):

"What a lovely dissertation! Produced by the great Salim Nourallah, a superb solo artist in his own right and the man behind the boards for the Old 97s, Without a Home boasts a series of sublime, wide-eyed narratives, each powered by subtle refrains, quietly engaging melodies and the sort of sentiments that automatically elevate them to pop perfection. Altobelli may be a newcomer, but his instincts are spot on; with songs like “Glitter,” “I Don’t Think Tonight Is Going To Be a Good Night,” “Never Enough” and “Over My Head” he retraces the same wistful terrain usually trod by Ron Sexsmith, Steve Forbert, Josh Ritter and others who are often found kneeling at the throne of one Ray Davies. That is to say, Altobelli possesses the same self-demurring attitude as those others -- modest, reserved and oftentimes understated, and yet he’s still adept at pulling out brilliant hooks and indelible imagery. Consider Altobelli one brilliant discovery and an artist to look forward to hearing again and again. Spot on!"

John Singer Sergeant

John Dufilho is one of those great, underappreciated songwriters, the main guy behind the Deathray Davies and I Love Math and the drummer for Apples in Stereo. Apparently, he doesn't really like his own voice, though, because, for his latest project he has enlisted a whole mess of vocalists to interpret his songs. They range from semi-famous -- Ben Kweller, Rhett Miller, Bob Schneider, Chris Walla -- to relatively obscure (and possibly imaginary), these singers, but weirdly, they all take on Dufilho's world-weary, shrug of a style, murmuring wonderful lines (my favorite: "it's hard to run uphill...on stilts...it's not my fault that's just the way I'm built") in the most unassuming manner.

I'm really liking a few of these, let's see Kweller's "Mountains, Oceans, Elephants," Brandon Carr & Dylan Silvers' "Why Does Your Moog Affect Me So?" (a dead ringer for "Midnight at the Black Nail Polish Factory"), and Salim Nourallah's "Crooked Teeth Like A Broken Piano."

American Songwriter is streaming the whole album here.

Salim Nourallah again

I posted, briefly, about Salim Nourallah's excellent new album, Hit Parade a few weeks ago. Here's a fuller, more thought-out review of the same CD, up today at Dusted.

Salim Nourallah
Hit Parade
Tapete

Salim Nourallah has never had a hit, much less a parade of them, but that’s not his fault. His sharp, prickly, invigorating songs come decades too late for mass popularity, or even the edgier, more modest acclaim of, say, Nick Lowe. Hit Parade, then, is titled tongue-in-cheek, a reminder that Nourallah’s well-crafted, tightly-played material is pop but not necessarily popular.

Nourallah has been making clever, catchy tunes since the late 1990s, first with his brother Faris, later with The Happiness Factor and, since 2004, as a solo artist. Along the way, he has connected with a sort of Dallas-centered urbane pop underground, producing albums for Old 97s and Rhett Miller, and collaborating in various ways with John Dufilho of The Death Ray Davies. (He sings on Dufilho’s John Singer Sargeant project.)

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You can listen to Salim on NPR's "the World Cafe Next" here.

Salim Nourallah's Hit Parade

If you like Beatles-flavored power pop, you can hardly go wrong with Texan songwriter Salim Nourallah's latest, Hit Parade, out on April 12. Nourallah has been kicking around for a while, first with the Happiness Project, later as a solo artist on Western Vinyl and Tapete Records. He has produced albums for the Old 97s and Rhett Miller..and this is actually not a bad reference point (others would be Brendan Benson, Wilco and the Deathray Davies) for his warm, catchy, carefully put together songs. Hit Parade shows some maturity -- the songs concern kids and spouses and credit card problems more than teenage romance and alienation -- but maintains a pretty sharp edge. I'm liking "Unstoppable", "Channel 5" (did Nourallah once date a "Dancing with Stars" contestant?), "Goddamn Life" and "Travolta" the best, but the songs are mostly pretty good.

Here's a live performance of "Unstoppable"