Moon Mirror, Nada Surf's new record, has everything fans love and expect from them. Bittersweet anthems that begin quietly but explode into soaring harmonies? Check. Songs that are play-on-repeat heart punches? Check. Songs that are poetic and thought-provoking while also being absolute belt-at-the-top-of-your-voice-with-the-windows-down masterpieces? Check. It's all here.
For the past 30 years, Nada Surf has had the same core lineup: Matthew Caws, Daniel Lorca, and Ira Elliot. Moon Mirror, their first for New West Records, was produced by the band and Ian Laughton at Rockfield Studios in Wales. For the recording, Matthew, Daniel, and Ira were joined by their friend and longtime keyboard player Louie Lino.
Moon Mirror is a thrilling and moving leap forward for Nada Surf. The songs on the album are true to the human experience--as meaningful and mysterious and sometimes absurd as it is. There's love, yes, but also grief, deep loneliness, doubt, wonder, and hope. These are not the songs of a band in their 20s. There is hard-won wisdom here, and hard-won belief in possibility--the kind that comes from falling down and getting back up.
"Give Me The Sun" ("I'm looking for something/ I can't say exactly what"), "Second Skin" ("I'm tired of living in this second skin/ I want to let everything in"), and "Moon Mirror"("connect me to something") grapple with being present and open, paying attention, and seeking connection in a world that feels alienating with its everything-all-at-once-ness. "In Front of Me Now" is a song against multi-tasking and sleepwalking through the one life we have. The song asks, "Why wasn't I present? I could have been living," and shows us a transformation in the chorus: "Today, I do what's in front of me now." I don't know about you, but I need this reminder as much as ever.
Nada Surf has been working together for decades, and they're consistently excellent, but they always surprise me. That's what great art does. For nearly 30 years, Nada Surf has been a part of the soundtrack of my life. Our lives. I fell hard for the band over Let Go in 2002, and following that, The Weight Is a Gift, in 2005. Those songs are lodged in my body, someplace they'll never be extracted from. So are songs from The Proximity Effect, Lucky, The Stars Are Indifferent to Astronomy, and Never Not Together, which was my favorite record of 2020. Moon Mirror will take its place among the others, in heavy rotation.
Four years ago, during lockdown, I was listening to Nada Surf one morning. My son, then seven years old, was quiet, and then he said, "They sing a lot about love."
What he said next has stuck with me: "It protects you."
Love protects you. If you need convincing, I think Moon Mirror will do just that. Lucky, lucky us to have had Nada Surf's music with us for all of these years, and lucky, lucky us to have these new songs now, right when we need them most.