With his brother
Faris
,
Salim Nourallah
was half of the imaginatively named
Nourallah Brothers
. They released one album together, 2001's self-titled affair, before heading their separate ways. That album was a charming, low-key one with hints of
the Pernice Brothers
and influenced by bands like
the Kinks
and
the Who
. On
Polaroid
Salim
focuses mainly on the earthier aspect of the brothers' sound, apart from a couple of experimental songs like the clever
cocktail
jazz
-based
"We Did All the Right Things"
and the Casio and cheap drum machine
"Model Brothers."
Mostly he is content to go the guitars-and-drums route -- not that that is a bad thing, not when it is done with skill and grace.
has a light touch both lyrically and musically that helps him avoid the trap of sameness and banality that too many introspective singer/songwriters can't escape. It helps that most of the songs seem to be about his relationship with his brother, which is a topic that isn't often sung about. The best songs on the album are the ones with the most energy. When
Nourallah
's pleasantly raspy voice is matched with hyper-melodic choruses like on
"1978"
(which sounds and feels a lot like
Jackson Browne
's
"Somebody's Baby"
) and the rollicking
"One Foot Stuck in the Past,"
the album takes flight. The rest of the time the album is still very strong and always listenable with only a couple of tracks that are a little weak like the draggy untitled song that ends the album and also like the opening song,
"Everybody Wants to Be Loved."
is a small-scale album that deals with large-scale emotions and along the way comes up with a batch of very pleasing
pop
songs. By any measure of the word, that is success. Think
Wilco
with no pretension or a
Wallflowers
with sonic imagination and then think about hunting this record down. ~ Tim Sendra