| | Faris Nourallah King Of Sweden CD Faris Nourallah Discography of CDs
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On his third solo album, Texas-based singer/songwriter Faris Nourallah claims to have crafted a narrative song cycle based on a central character, a disillusioned and disenfranchised teenager. The "story" is as hard to suss out as that of such classic supposed concept albums as Hüsker Dü's Zen Arcade (or for that matter, Green Day's American Idiot), but it's of little importance. This brief but musically rich 13-track album is a varied and delightful journey through a variety of indie folk and arty pop styles. After starting with a batch of songs in the John Vanderslice or Elliott Smith tradition of weedy singer/songwriterisms, there's a montage of brief songs in the album's center, fading in and out of each other within a minute or so each, that sounds oddly like the free-form art rock of Soft Machine's Volume Two, even down to the fact that when Nourallah sings in falsetto, he sounds strikingly like Robert Wyatt. That fades into "Guiding Light," which sounds like a dream collaboration between the High Llamas and Canadian art pop cult hero John Southworth, which then transforms into a glorious, dreamy piece of piano-based chamber pop called "I Run Faster Than You Can," which might be the best song Joe Pernice never wrote. (This song was written and performed with Salim Nourallah, with whom Faris made 2001's unfortunately overlooked Nourallah Brothers.) And on it goes, until the haunting melody and dramatic semi-orchestral arrangement of the closing "Tattoo Your Woman." The storyline, by necessity, takes a back seat to Nourallah's melodic gifts and smart, largely self-contained arrangements; King of Sweden is a completely charming record, no matter what it's "about." ~ Stewart Mason Faris Nourallah King Of Sweden Songs King Of Sweden Review
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Purchase King Of Sweden CD To buy, Click on price to add to cart | Faris Nourallah I Love Faris CD (2003)
King Of Sweden album
$11.99
| | Junior Boys Last Exit CDs (2004) Bonus CD
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| | Lucinda Williams Live @ The Fillmore West CDs (2005) Digipak
King Of Sweden music CDs
$15.09 Never one to tread the expected path, Lucinda Williams followed ...
| | Bright Eyes I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning CD (2005)
King Of Sweden songs
$12.05 In early 2005, young indie icon Conor Oberst (AKA Bright Eyes) unveiled two full-length albums--I'M WIDE AWAKE, IT'S MORNING and DIGITAL ASH IN A DIGITAL URN. Whereas the latter proved to be a departure into electronic music, the former sticks to Oberst's established sound, which combines the urgency and heart-on-the-sleeve sentiment of emo-rock with twangy, down-home feel of alt-country and folk music.
I'M WIDE AWAKE begins ...
| | Salim Nourallah Beautiful Noise CD (2005)
King Of Sweden album
$13.49 Salim Nourallah's Beautiful Noise is another pleasantly simple and pretty singer/songwriter album by an artist ...
| | Band Of Horses Everything All The Time CD (2006)
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| | Ella Jenkins This-A-Way, That-A-Way CD (1989)
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| | Eric's Trip Forever Again CD (1995)
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| | Ride Nowhere CD (1990)
King Of Sweden album
$17.45 British import reissue; includes the four tracks from their deleted 1990 EP, TODAY FOREVER.
One of the seminal records of the shoegazer movement, Ride's NOWHERE typifies all of the best qualities of the movement's sound. Shimmering, psychedelic atmospheres, squalling guitars shot through with distortion, and hypnotic drones balanced by genuine pop songcraft are all on ample display here, and are executed with a precision and mastery that represent the pinnacle of their technique.
"Seagull," the album's opener, pushed by the swirling twin guitar attack of Andy Bell and Mark Gardener, is simultaneously thunderous and radiant. Surging cuts like "Polar Bear" testify to Ride's skill at building dynamic tension and ringing sonic drama. But Ride were more than mere noise-merchants; their debt to psychedelic '60s pop also results in some fine songwriting, as the chiming, arepeggiated pop confection "Taste" reveals. NOWHERE is Ride's finest moment, and as a definitive document of shoegazer bliss, it ranks right alongside My Bloody Valentine's classic LOVELESS.
Nowhere seems to hold consensus as the second-best record of the shoegaze era, and with very good reason. All of the common words, phrases, and adjectives commonly used with the short-lived subgenre fit properly here, and they're all positive, every one of them. Whir, whoosh, haze, swirl, ad nauseum -- this record holds all of these elements at their most exciting and mastered. But in the end, great pop records necessitate quality songs, which Nowhere delivers throughout. Undeniably, it's Ride's zenith -- dense, tight, and hypnotic. "Seagull" serves as a dynamic opener; after a couple seconds of light feedback, bassist Steve Queralt kicks in with a rubbery, elliptical line (reminiscent of a certain Beatles song), which is soon followed by Andy Bell and Mark Gardener's guitar twists and Loz Colbert's alternately gentle and punishing drumming. After the upbeat "Kaleidoscope," the record falls into a tempo lull that initially seems impenetrable and meandering. However, patience reveals a ...
| | T Rex I Danced Myself Out Of The Womb CDs (1998) (Import)
King Of Sweden CD music
$22.55 A lusciously presented two-LP package revives the earlier Electric Boogie CD with revised and corrected source information -- famously among Marc Bolan and T. Rex collectors, Electric Boogie was heralded as a long-lost recording of the band's summer 1971 Weeley Festival showing, only to emerge a collection of cuts from four other shows entirely. Bearing in mind that these shows were taped ...
| | Nervous Exits Get Out CD (2006)
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| | Cloudland Canyon Silver Tongued Sisyphus CD (2007)
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| | Native Just Four CD (2008) (Import) Japan
King Of Sweden album
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