Thankfully, we’ve had to wait little time since Salim Nourallah released his last record in early ’26 (reviewed by The Big Takeover here.) As the Nourallah-initiated know, he writes the kind of songs that you’ll sing along to almost immediately. He’s a passionate music fan himself (listen in to his outstanding Break in the Battle records, volumes 1 and 2), so it’s no wonder he peppers his songs with familiar DNA traces with ample hat tips to 60s and 70s classics.
Salim’s solo records often have been acoustic guitar—forward affairs, built up with ace melodies, a dash of keys, lithe bass, and curated percussion dosed out only as needed. But it’s the lyrics and vocals that characterize his records. His words painfully and joyfully capture everything in his purview, from the mundane to the heaviest elements of life. In a synthetic, AI-saturated world, he goes against that grain, singing with no effects or reverb, sometimes slightly horse and scratched, twangy and warped (“Trampoline”) and other times confident and crisp (“Bulletproof”).
On solo LP number ten, “Closer As A Star”, he’s supremely relaxed, seemingly mike’d up after falling out of bed moments before. The results are charmingly disarming, and a key strength of his sonic playbook. For the uninitiated listener needing reference points, think of Tweedy or Petty, and occasionally fellow Texan Britt Daniel.
I asked Salim to reflect back to when he was writing the new album and had a few songs together, and if was there a point when he knew there was a pervading theme that was going to emanate throughout the record? He says, “I realized the overriding theme of ‘Close As A Star’ when I initially put together a 2 a.m. song sequence this past October. I was under tremendous stress and couldn’t sleep. In the middle of the night, I started thinking about this sequence. It definitely involves distance and separation.”
Loneliness is a definite theme on “Telegraph Avenue”, which kicks off the new long-player. An acoustic guitar strum ala “Dear Prudence” welcomes listeners like a comfy aural blanket, while vibrating, processed keys add uneasiness, texture, and genuine warmth. As Salim recalls in the record’s liner notes, the “rolling verse [just] came tumbling out” like he was tuned into a “cosmic radio station.” The results are spooky yet somehow comforting, echoed in lyrics like “Stop trying to please a God you can’t see,” which is depicted in the artful, utterly unique video as a graffitied slogan on a rooftop billboard.
“About Us” follows and is another standout track from the moment we hear Wurlitzer 200 keys straight out of Queen’s “You’re My Best Friend”, and propelled by a similar rhythmic beat. A healthy dash of “Revolver” -era Beatles adds flavor and feel here.
The guitar jangle keeps things light on another bittersweet gem, “Sick of Being Lonely.” Here, Salim writes with authority and austerity. On “Dreaming of Leaving.” vocals are dominant, while instrumentation is sparse but not undercooked. But he can readily dial arrangements up, as on “Bulletproof”, a 3-minute power-pop smash that should be required listening at indie rock college.
“Why Try” is the album’s penultimate track, oozing with wistful emotion over a broken marriage. Salim says in the liner notes that the song was built from a poem he wrote years back and rediscovered during the pandemic. His bandmate and co-producer, Billy Harvey “slaved over this mix” and you can really hear it in this superb song that’s bound to make you tear up.
When I asked Salim about how he demos, writes, and records he shared that “I stopped doing demos a long time ago. I only do live performance voice memos. Demos often haunt most artists and force a game of trying to chase down the original idea.” To get “Star” sounding the right way in the end, Salim has a lot of praise for Billy. “He deserves significant credit for the sound of this record. He mixed it. Often, mixing is more a process of taking away and decluttering. I know we discussed that extensively while working on this record. A great case in point is how ‘The Disappointment Department’ builds to its conclusion. The crescendo is achieved with minimal instrumentation.”
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