Nada Surf, The Weight Is A Gift
Fully recovered from their one-hit wonder status, Nada Surf sound on their fourth album like a band who know what they have.
After their 1996 hit "Popular," Nada Surf found themselves in danger of becoming one-hit wonders. Then they got dropped from their major label and began the long, slow climb to smaller but more durable indie stardom. By 2005's The Weight Is a Gift, their fourth album, Nada Surf had reached a comfortable plateau. If their third album, Let's Go, was the sound of a band with something to prove, The Weight is the sound of a band who know what they have.
Guitar chiming and voice soaring, Matthew Caws jumps in with both feet on “Concrete Bed,” a peppy little number about conquering self-doubt: “To find someone you love, you gotta be someone you love,” he sings. Time and again, the album's songs find him pushing toward grace, but always falling short. “Always Love” opens with simple riffs and simple truths, and then Caws steps on his distortion pedal and jumps into his falsetto register, as if he's trying jump over the static in his mind.
Midway through, the album's tone drifts towards a mood of acceptance. The melancholy “All Is a Game” is followed by “Blankest Year,” an exuberant, anthemic ode to letting the chips fall where they may. “Oh, fuck it,” Caws sings. “I'm gonna have a party.” Pitting his off-kilter strum against the rhythms section's wire-tight backbeat, he's reveling in being off-balance. Like the band itself, he's strong for the hard times, and glad he's still around to sing about them.
