Gifted indie rockers all but force you to sing along
There’s a cut on Nada Surf’s The Weight is a Gift that begins with frontman Matthew Caws singing, “I look in the mirror / To see what my hair is doing / Is it kind of Skywalker / Or is it kind of stupid?” But it’s more than just Caws’ golden locks that resemble everybody’s favorite Jedi knight. Both lads have the fresh-faced appeal of the boy next door—or next moisture farm, as the case may be—but are clearly haunted by a dark past. (At this point I realize I’ve lost everyone but 25- to 40-year-old males.) Look, you don’t write lyrics like, “Who’s to say why we’re built so strange / Disappointing ourselves before we change?” unless you’ve seen a bit of the Dark Side. And you don’t sing them along to perfectly crafted, instantly memorable pop melodies unless you’ve got some sort of interstellar gift. Further fueled by the precise power of drummer Ira Elliot and bassist Daniel Lorca, The Weight is a Gift is a worthy sequel to the pure pop bliss of 2002’s Let Go.