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NADA SURF
Lucky
(Barsuk)
(NODEPRESSION.NET) -- Nada Surf's latest effort begins on an ominous note, an aching guitar figure setting the tone for a chamber-pop anthem that couldn't sound more disillusioned. "Everyone's right and no one is sorry," Matthew Caws eases in with a sigh. "That's the start and the end of the story/From the Sharks and the Jets to the call in the morning." The songs themselves are typically more buoyant than the lyrics would suggest, often mining a wide-open power-pop vein that makes you wonder if Caws could have followed the Gin Blossoms straight to the top of the pop charts. "Beautiful Beat" is a jangle-rock gem, with its shimmering wall of Teenage Fanclub-worthy harmonies, while "Here Goes Something" is jaunty folk as Paul McCartney understood it in the Rubber Soul days. While there's nothing here as unconventional as "Popular", the song that made them almost famous for a minute, the highlights make it hard to miss the quirks.

-- ED MASLEY
Copyright c. 2008 No Depression Inc. and/or Ed Masley.