Nada Surf has long been overlooked in the genre of alternative rock. The band has never truly broken in the pop-charts sense of the word, but over the years they it has certainly accrued a devoted following of people who are unashamed to demand something catchier than run-of-the-mill indie rock.
The band's 1996 debut album, "High/Low," garnered a hit with its first single, "Popular," a timely rocker ridden with teen-angst that touched a nerve with post-grunge youth. Following this success, the band was surprisingly dropped by its record label, Elektra Records, after the label failed to hear a single in the band's second offering, "The Proximity Effect" (2000).
Since then, Nada Surf has signed with minor label Barsuk Records and released two more albums, "Let Go" (2002) and "The Weight is a Gift" (2005), both of which have further cemented the band's place in alt-rock history but failed to push the band any further in terms of popularity.
Nada Surf's new release, "Lucky," is the band's fifth effort, and although it is a solid alternative/indie album, it fails to take the band to any new or unexplored territory. This time around, the band chose to work with weathered indie producer John Goodmanson, most famous for his work with stalwarts Death Cab for Cutie and Pavement.
The first track, "See These Bones," introduces the album slowly and lazily with lead singer Matthew Caws crooning, "Everyone's right and no one is sorry/ That's the start and the end of this story/ From the Sharks and the Jets/ to the call in the morning." What exactly this line means is unclear, but the soothing tone of Caws' voice seems to make it all make sense. The orchestration and mixing of different musical parts is done spectacularly, and even though the song may be a bit boring, the soft, fluffy sound is easy on the ears.
The second track, "Whose Authority," ups the tempo a bit and is the first feisty song of the album, with the chorus declaring, "On whose authority?/ I have none over me." Unfortunately, the song fails to get interesting and relies on the catchiness of the barely-above-average chorus to propel the song forward. By the end of the song's three minutes, the listener is mildly cheery but hoping the next track picks up where this one leaves off.
Unfortunately, (a word that is establishing its presence in this review), the next track to really take off is the fifth, "Weightless." The song begins with a simple enough sequence of guitar chords, but the vocals quickly come in and flesh out the straightforward but effective guitar part. The upbeat intro quickly fades as the verse drops out to only acoustic guitar and a filtered Caw saying, with perfect indie minimalism, "Behind every desire is another one waiting to be liberated when the first one is sated." The second half of the song is entirely comprised of acoustic guitar and orchestral parts, but the energy of the tune continues uncompromised, the true sign of a good slow rocker.
If you purchase the physical CD, you'll get a bonus disk with acoustic versions of a few of the songs and the extra track "Everyone's On Tour." Although it is obvious the track didn't make it on the album due to its completely different style, it's an incredibly good song of its own accord. The guitars are distorted, and drummer Ira Elliot really gets to let his inner punk rocker go as the track claws its way through minor chords and syncopated hand-claps.
Perhaps if the band had dedicated half of the album to songs such as "Everyone's On Tour" and half to slower songs that wear on the listener such as "See These Bones," the album would have felt more alive. While Nada Surf is certainly one of the premier catchy alt-rock acts of the day, "Lucky" fails to reach out to any new audiences.
