Guessing the origin of the singer on this record would make a good parlour game.
Revealing that his real name is Karl Henry wouldn't provide much of a clue.
Although Kalli is on the same record label as Bjork, I don't think many would suspect that he's actually from Iceland.
It's almost as if he himself is in denial about his Nordic roots - "California comin' home............back to where I belong" he sings without a hint of irony on a song called Laurel Canyon.
Kalli was once lead singer with the Icelandic band Without Gravity and this is his second solo album after 2005's While The City Sleeps.
The first track, Black To Blue, takes a bruised and blunt look at a love gone sour : "If there's nothing left to say, why don't you get up and walk away". .
On the opening line of this song he makes a more accurate statement about his geographical location: "I open my eyes - I'm a long way from home"..
He's actually in Nashville, at least that was where this album was recorded with the help of producer Kurt Storey and with backing from an A-list of Music City session men.
Most of the songs, all sung in the first person, feature our hero wandering about feeling lost and alone such as when he's on on his ownsome at a train station or isolated in a crowd.
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All this moping around gives him plenty of material for gloomy laments buoyed up by a few firm resolves - "I'm going to free my mind - leave my troubles behind" he declares boldly on Dark Horse.
Other times his plight seems to border on desperation: "When you got nothing / You ain't got nothing to lose" he bemoans on Shine On Me, a gospel-tinged tune complete with girly chorus.
All these 'why does it always rain on me' sentiments wind up with Kalli heading nowhere fast. On the closing track, This Is Goodbye, he is dark and cold with only the "fire inside" for comfort.
He writes some pretty melodies and sings plaintively so this leads to some wildly inaccurate parallels being made to the likes of Neil Young, Jeff Buckey.
To me, Kalli's brand of bland, bitter-sweet romanticism means that Ronan Keating would be a better point of comparison.
Kalli on Myspace
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