Following the song / clip Popular from 1996, Nada Surf is still lumped together by some 'serious' music lovers with bands like , who also broke through with an infectious MTV hit. With the accompanying album , the New York trio already showed that this was nonsense, and in fact every Nada Surf record has served as new evidence ever since. Likewise this eighth. If you would like to criticize the
… band - now expanded with well known guitarist Doug Gillard - it is that their records seem to be created under a template. A handful of quiet guitar songs (the beautiful Friend Hospital for example, or Animal), a whole bunch of mid-tempo guitar songs (such as Cold To See Clear and the trumpet-embellished Out Of The Dark) and a few heavy guitar songs (New Bird and the pleasant against advancing title track). But when it all is presented in such a clever, almost natural way, Nada Surf has more than ever to exist in the Great Guitar Drought of 2016. (RME)more