Ten albums and over 20 years into their career,
Nada Surf
are simply getting better with age. Such is the overwhelming feeling you get on 2024's effusively hooky and philosophical
Moon Mirror
. The album follows 2020's equally engaging
Never Not Together
and once again finds them recording in Wales with producer
Ian Laughton
. If that previous outing brought together all of the journeyman New York band's myriad gifts for smartly written melodic pop/rock,
feels like a further distillation of the sound, marked by sparkling guitar riffs, crisp bass and drum interplay, and singer
Matthew Caws
' knack for crafting lyrical songs rife with a bittersweet sense of joy.
Caws
and his bandmates started out in the early '90s when they were all in their twenties. Rather than bemoan the passing of time and youth,
lean into their age on
, imbuing each song with a poetic, transcendental quality, one largely centered on the themes of gratitude and being present in the moment. It's a sentiment they dig into on "In Front of Me," a shimmering power pop anthem in which
seemingly lists all the foolish ways he wasted time in the past, whether through worry, envy, or impatience. Some of the toxic traits he lists are more expected, such as criticizing other artist's work at the same time he is doubting his own ideas. Yet, there are clever turns of phrase that take on ever more existential meanings, like when
sings, "In the middle of summer, I was decemb'ring." Similarly meditative and musically infectious moments pop up throughout, as on "Second Skin," where
senses an ever-thinning boundary between the physical and spiritual worlds, revealing, "this apartment building floats on a humming sea/Under the floorboards/Under you and me." These are songs that could make you cry just as easily as smile, but not because they are sad. On the contrary, these are some of the most joyful, sugar-rush inducing pop songs
have written. Still,
and
hone in so eloquently on the essential, bittersweet ideas at the core of
that their honesty and sweetness can hit unexpectedly hard in the way the best rock albums often do. ~ Matt Collar