Singer/songwriter Salim Nourallah reminds us that harm is common in his poetic, poignant, and profound new single “Harm,” an achingly intimate different rock track filled with reality, uncooked emotion, and humbling humanity.
Stream: “Harm” – Salim Nourallah
We all include our personal harm.
A few of which will appear extra apparent or overt at occasions, and many people disguise it properly, however in a method, we’re all ‘broken’ items simply doing our greatest. Name it baggage, name it trauma, name it no matter you need – everybody has one thing, and in his newest single, singer/songwriter Salim Nourallah exposes a reality that’s properly price remembering the following time we really feel alone in our feelings.
Intimate, uncooked, and achingly susceptible, the emotionally charged “Harm” reminds us that harm is common – a shared human expertise to which we will all relate, as a result of we’ve all had it. Nobody escapes this world unscathed or untarnished, and whereas it’s a painful capsule to swallow, it’s additionally one of many lovely, bittersweet information of life that assist make it all of the extra worthwhile.
harm is you
harm is me
harm is enjoyable
harm is reasonable
harm is uncooked
harm is nice
harm spares nobody
its vengeance cuts deep
we’re dancing in sluggish movement
on a razor’s edge
we’re dancing, so devoted
tumble off the ledge
Atwood Journal is proud to be premiering “Harm,” a mild upheaval of stressed ideas and interior turmoil wearing Wilco-like different rock garb. Salim Nourallah’s soul-stirring first single of the 12 months is poetic, poignant, and profound; by way of three minutes of accessible, catchy lyrics and comparatively easy melodies and chords, the Dallas, Texas-based singer/songwriter invitations his viewers to replicate on their ‘particular person’ harm, all whereas recognizing, acknowledging, and to some extent accepting the truth that, deep down, we’re not all that completely different from each other.
Our harm is, in essence, a unifying pressure that may convey us nearer collectively, bridging our divides.
we’re broken as youngsters
by broken adults
harm is hidden
in bullet proof vaults
harm is intelligent
harm is fast
harm is reckless
harm is slick
An evergreen track with a very highly effective, significant message, “Harm” arrives within the wake of Nourallah’s recently-released singles “Shield Your Peace” (Nov ‘24) and “Telegraph Avenue” (Oct ‘24). Because the artist explains, this newest observe is years within the making –and the results of collaboration, endurance, and a textbook perfectionist studying when to let go.
“I’ve been ready virtually seven years to launch ‘Harm,’ Nourallah tells Atwood Journal. “It got here in on my birthday in 2018, one week earlier than my mom died. I recorded it with my band in Austin, then dragged it into the Nashville classes with Marty Willson-Piper to re-record it. These classes ended up yielding the A Nuclear Winter report that got here out in 2023. I liked Billy Harvey’s mixture of ‘Harm,’ however determined it didn’t fairly match on the report, so I shelved it. Two years later, I recorded a totally completely different model with Billy. Ridiculous. The ‘new’ model was the one I used to be planning to lastly launch, however I circled again to the unique. It was pretty obvious to me that this was the definitive model, and I ought to FINALLY let it out into the world. It was a protracted and winding highway to get right here – making the discharge of ‘Harm’ all of the extra candy for me.”
like a nasty anesthetic
administered to you
in the course of the night time
like a mad, thumping headache
that won’t go away
Whereas the aforementioned A Nuclear Winter represented Nourallah’s ninth studio album in a two-decade span, the artist says he doesn’t think about himself to be notably quick relating to writing and releasing music.
“I’ve acquired a repute for firing out releases in a prolific method, however I don’t actually see it,” he admits. “I truly really feel like I’ve been fairly sluggish to launch new music. Two songs particularly come to thoughts. ‘See You in Marfa’ is an apparent instance. I additionally recorded a number of variations of that one earlier than it was launched as a single in 2022. I’d written it in March of 2015, in order that solely took me seven years! ‘Your Birthday With out You’ was written in August of 2015 and didn’t come out till 2021. I may go on and on. Mainly, I really feel like I’ve been slower than molasses. The songs are at all times there, however getting recordings and mixes that I’m proud of has usually been a tedious course of. The latest examples are the Salim and the Philistines’ Rescued from Oblivion. That assortment of songs was began final December, and it nonetheless hasn’t been accomplished. Billy Harvey and I additionally completed 26 recordings which might be at present sitting within the waiting-to-be-released queue. My most up-to-date singles, ‘Telegraph Avenue’ and ‘Shield Your Peace,’ got here from that pile of accomplished songs.”
“I’m simply unsure of the present panorama for artists like myself. Releasing albums is dear and concerned, and it takes a number of effort and time. In a world the place we’ve devalued music to the purpose during which most individuals count on it to be free, it’s laborious for impartial artists like me to maintain pouring their very own cash into one thing that in the end brings little or no again. In order that’s the quandary. Do I embrace the age of streaming and simply launch single after single or do I proceed to place out the occasional album? I haven’t actually determined what to do, so it’s added yet one more layer to the speed during which I’m releasing new music.”
He might have taken his time to lastly launch “Harm,” however the track feels as contemporary and true at the moment as it will have again in 2018 when it was first written.
Nothing concerning the human expertise has profoundly shifted up to now seven years to make a track about our common experiences of ache, trauma, and different types of struggling any much less relatable or related – actually, the highest of 2025 feels just like the good time to be fascinated about, speaking about, and singing about harm.
harm is ugly
when harm is useless
harm is winter
places a chill in your veins
harm is poison
will poison all that you realize
harm is wanton
it likes to placed on a present
Stream “Harm” solely on Atwood Journal, and keep tuned for extra to come back from Salim Nourallah over these subsequent twelve months as he continues share “new” (to us) songs from his seemingly limitless vault. Lovely and brutal , this track actually aches in the easiest of how.
we’re dancing on a razor’s edge
we’re dancing, tumble off the ledge
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Stream: “Harm” – Salim Nourallah
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