Nada Surf; Lucky; Barsuk/City Slang
After listening to “The Film Did Not Go ‘Round,” the quiet love song that concludes Nada Surf’s fifth studio album, Lucky, I searched for one word to best capture the latest effort from the New York-based rock band. Unfortunately, the word I settled on was “unimpressive.”
As the album progresses, it becomes clear that Nada Surf wants to generate creative variety by imitating styles that have worked well for other bands. The end result is small sparks of innovation overwhelmed by unabashed plagiarism of classic rock material.
“See These Bones,” the album’s opening track, is arguably its best song. The lyrics are more thoughtful than the simple couplets that dominate the rest of the tracks, and drummer Ira Elliot offers his premiere performance on the album with an energetic rhythmic addition that blends well with the slow yet upbeat sound of Matthew Caws’ guitar.
The next song, “Whose Authority,” demonstrates Nada Surf’s lack of originality in attempting to create an album full of hits. The song features the line, “There’s a feeling I get, when I look to the west,” taken verbatim from “Stairway to Heaven.” On “Here Goes Something,” though, their appropriation actually helps create a good song: the nifty guitar intro is reminiscent of several Beatles songs, and the mellow vocals could easily be confused for a Simon & Garfunkel number.
The band’s imitations are not limited strictly to decades-old recordings—“The Fox” borrows Radiohead’s steadily ominous rhythm, and there are several instances where Caws’ falsetto voice sounds just like Chris Martin of Coldplay.
Lucky is not a bad listen, but it is unassailably unoriginal, an album with no identity or defining style.
Voice’s Choices: “See These Bones,” “Here Goes Something.”
