Beautiful Noise

Salim Nourallah's Beautiful Noise is another pleasantly simple and pretty singer/songwriter album by an artist with a firm grasp on how to craft memorable tunes and how to produce them simply without ever being boring. Many who try to walk this fine line end up failing miserably. Nourallah always delivers the right amount of pop and emotion throughout. His low-key croon of a voice is perfectly suited to the calm and richly arranged tunes; he never oversells his melodies and is unfailingly honest and intimate. On this album, unlike on Polaroid, the songs that connect the best are the mid-tempo and balladic songs like "Never Say Never," "The Apartment," "First Love," "Slowly Gently Softly," and "Life in a Split Second." The production values have been raised here, the strings, electric pianos, and glitzy synths see to it that the slower songs are adorned with all kinds of sonic beauty that helps the feeling of calm melancholy grow stronger on each play of the record. That's not to say that the up-tempo songs are weak. Far from it, as "The World Is Full of People Who Want to Hurt You," "Sunday Morning," and "Montreal" demonstrate. Nourallah just seems to give the ballads more attention on the album. Now it is up to listeners to give the album more attention. It deserves it and might be one of the best singer/songwriter/rocker albums you will hear anytime soon.