The second full-length disc from Memphis native, former Nashville resident, and current South Carolinian Nick Pagliari finds him at a stylistic crossroads between tightly orchestrated pop and a more relaxed alt-country sound. Recorded in Memphis, the album makes it obvious that he has soaked up more than a little of that towns legacy of horn-inflected rock and soul.
Pagliari goes disarmingly retro on the opening track “Leave It Alone”, which sounds like a lost Billy Joel single, all rhythmic piano and big fat horn section fills, and also on “Don’t Wanna Die Lonely”, which employs one of those riffs so familiar you just know you’ve heard it before somewhere, on an NRBQ or Big Star album. What youve almost certainly heard before is the sound Pagliari delivers on “Do What You Love”, where he’s almost a dead ringer for Jay Farrar; the phrasing, tonality and vocal mannerisms so closely mirror the Uncle Tupelo and Son Volt singer that it would be offputting if the song weren’t so dead-on gorgeous.
With one foot in Memphis’ legacy of rock and soul, another in Nashville’s less-traveled musical avenues, and a new foothold in the southeast, Pagliari has delivered an impressive album of polite power-pop with its influences displayed plainly but purposefully.
