Pupils of
Ric Ocasek
Nada Surf played the most classic "guitar rock," the kind that couldn`t be more anachronistic in the 1990s.
Fortunately for them, Matthew Caws was a singer-guitarist of pathos and passion, and the rhythm section of Daniel Lorca and Ira Elliot was respectable.
Too bad that on
High/Low (Elektra, 1996) (aside from Deeper Well)
they lack verve, and too bad that (apart from the second-hand grunge hit
Popular and from Psychic Caramel) they lack melodies.
In the great zoo of 1990s New York they came off as amateurs.
Proximity Effect (MarDev, 1998 - Elektra, 2000) has little to commend itself. Hyperspace tries to emulate their 1996 hit, but it is the dreamy ballad 80 Windows that steals the show. The rest is as uninspired as rock can be.
The band literally reinvented themselves on Let Go (Labels, 2002 - Barsuk, 2003), their most inspired album yet, overflowing with gently melodic gems while exuding anger and frustration. Somehow, their melodic skills were emphasized by a humbler, more sincere context, and the variety of formats stretched from ballad to rock'n'roll in a way that they had never dreamed of before. With gentle ballads such as Blizzard of '77, Inside of Love and Neither Heaven Nor Space they de facto pioneered a sort of "Seventies revival", a sound that harked back to the mellowest moments of the Alan Parsons Project and the Electric Light Orchestra. At the same time they continued to revise Tom Petty's slick driving folk-rock (Happy Kid, Treading Water) that, with a bit more of emphasis and rhythm, allowed them to coin a poppy version of the Velvet Underground (The Way You Wear Your Head, the album's standout). While the album had no ambition to reinvent rock music, the skipping beats and hard riffs of Hi-Speed Soul and the seven-minute mutation of Paper Boats from catatonic to soaring showed craftmanship above the average.
The Weight Is A Gift (Barsuk,
2005 - Sonic Boom, 2006) was louder and
faster but, generally speaking, continued the orgy
of self-analysis and of flamboyant melodic revival.
This time the band's preference went clearly towards the bittersweet
ballad,
but the way they packaged it was so tasty and poignant that the parade
was
never monotonous:
the comatose Comes A Time,
Do It Again,
What Is Your Secret,
employ an arsenal of little tricks to keep Matthew Caws' lyrics alive
and kicking.
The vocal and instrumental arrangements of Your Legs Grow
even border
on dream-pop.
Furthermore, the stereotype of the pop ballad is violated by
the frenzied tempo of Concrete Bed,
the burning guitar of Always Love,
the collective pounding of In The Mirror,
the punkish energy of Imaginary Friends,
and especially by the infectious beat of Blankest Year.
The songs on Lucky (Barsuk,
2008) were less immediate than the ones
The Weight Is A Gift, but the procedure
was very similar.
Whose Authority, Beautiful Beat,
See These Bones and I Like
What You Say
displayed the same confidence in building and sustaining pop magic,
while
Weightless and The Fox
veered towards brooding atmospheres.
None (except maybe Ice On The Wing) has the verve
of the best
Sixties revival.
If I Had A Hi-Fi (Mardev, 2010) is a collection of covers.
Marking a sudden decline in quality, The Stars Are Indifferent to Astronomy (2012) is trite third-rate midtempo power-pop for the generic non-listening audience of the supermarkets. Clear Eye Clouded Mind (halfway between Green Day and R.E.M., with a refrain a` la Tom Petty) is mildly interesting for its cross-pollination efforts, but Waiting For Something is old-fashioned Roger McGuinn-esque folk-rock and Jules And Jim is a romantic bedroom lullaby like million others. And these are the best songs.
Nada Surf's frontman Matthew Caws and Juliana Hatfield formed Minor Alps that debuted with Get There (2013).
Nada Surf (now augmented by Doug Gillard on second guitar)
continued in their new soft and hazy folk-rock vein on
You Know You Are (Barsuk, 2016) with harmless tunes like
Friend Hospital and barely
rocking songs like
Cold To See Clear and
You Know Who You Are.
Never Not Together (2020) contains the
trivial power-pop of So Much Love, the
carillon tune Looking for You and
infinite echoes of the Byrds and of Tom Petty for those who never heard the originals. Luckily, it ends on an almost tragic note with the power ballad Ride in the Unknown.
Nada Surf sounded revitalized on the
six-song EP Karmic (2021).
Songs like Telescope
(with even distortion and electronics),
Treehouse and
Nothing
are almost punk-rock by their standards.
