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A year and a half ago, Joe Nichols topped the country chart with "Tequila Makes Her Clothes Fall Off." It was a drinking song, but he sang it slowly and tenderly, with a rueful chuckle. It was hard not to think of the guy left behind, waiting for his lady to return.

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You can hear more of that melancholy on Nichols' new album, "Real Things." This time around, the drinking song is called, "Let's Get Drunk and Fight," and it pays affectionate tribute to a volatile couple: "Have another pina colada, get good and tore down/ And if you need a pinata, well, you can kick me around."

At a time when many young country singers aspire to rock stardom, Nichols is something of an anomaly. He prefers small gestures to big ones, and "Real Things" is full of elegant, understated songs full of charming details.

The one song he helped write, "The Difference Is Night and Day," is a well-made weeper, and the CD ends on a pleasingly old-fashioned note: Lee Ann Womack joins him to sing "If I Could Only Fly," a Blaze Foley song previously recorded by Merle Haggard and Willie Nelson. Wouldn't it be a satisfying surprise if it turned out that this low-key singer had made the year's best country album?

—Kelefa Sanneh, New York Times