Bonus MP3: Salim Nourallah -- "Endless Dream Days"

Stopped by the Lakewood Landing relatively late the other night, and ran into a friend who'd read my article on Salim Nourallah's latest (and perhaps his last) disc, Constellation. It was a friendly conversation, of course, but my friend told me he openly doubted the story's entire premise.

"There's no way it's his last disc," he said. "He's just playing the media. You'll see."

Will I? I don't know. I like to think I left some room for interpretation in the article. Hell, in the story's lead, I, too, openly doubt the fact that this will be Nourallah's final disc.

And, yeah, truth is, I'd be as unsurprised as anyone to see Nourallah put out another record. It's in his blood, far as I'm concerned.

But Nourallah? With him, it's a different story. I really do think he'd be genuinely surprised if he felt compelled to put another disc out. And that was the point I was trying to get across to the story. After all these years, it seems Nourallah is finally satisfied with his life's work; he just doesn't feel compelled to keep putting out records--at least not at this point.

A quick listen to the album's opening cut, "Endless Dream Days", shows why, I think. By my count, it's the best track on an album that I already called Nourallah's finest. Take a listen...

Bonus mp3:

At the very least, I agree with Nourallah on one level. If this is, indeed, his final album, it's a good one to go out on.