Faris Nourallah...

Faris Nourallah (formerly of the Nourallah Brothers of Dallas, Tx) occupies that odd but charming territory that exists somewhere amongst the intersections of folk music, alt-country, pop, and the heartbroken ditch that Elliott Smith was unable to climb out of. It's a territory that artists like the aforementioned Smith, Unbunnny (who's Snow Tires was one of my favorites of last year), and Feist seem to successfully hover around. I find in listening to their music, and particularly to Nourallah's Kind Of Sweden, a weird ability to be stylistically all over the map and still emotionally centered. That sounds like a bunch of horseshit, but it's true. On King Of Sweden Nourallah crafts a tale of a boy's dillusionment with the world through carefully wrought pop songs. The songs vary from introspective folk to near 80's synth dance pop. It shouldn't make sense but Nourallah manages to do it, each song feels in touch with both the emotion of the song and the storytelling of the whole. Much like the Unbunny record King Of Sweden has grown on me slowly, charming away my cynicism for its all too brief 33 minutes. Did any of that make sense?

2 songs from Faris Nourallah's King Of Sweden:

I Can Run Faster Than You

Disenfranchised