Nada Surf
If I Had a Hi-Fi
You're joking. A covers album? From Nada Surf? But they're still putting out decent records. Why would they do this? And the covers they chose.. Spoon, Kate Bush, Arthur Russell, The Go-Betweens, Depeche Mode.. It's too ambitious. This is going to be a trainwreck.
But wait.. As the first track, Bill Fox's "Electrocution", gently floats from my speakers my thin mask of cynicism begins to crack. This is.. fantastic... and each track is equally good... It's like one of those machines you find at tourist traps, that you feed a penny into and it stamps a shiny new picture on it. Like a picture of the Grand Canyon or something... Each song that is fed into this Nada Surf machine emerges through their pop filter as an irresistable bubblegum gem .. I even like the Moody Blues cover...Oh my God.. Their take on Soft Pack's "Bright Side" is a distorted slice of guitar heaven worthy of, dare I say, Superchunk?
It's just too much.. This record is so catchy it's contagious. More contagious than a cold sore... And it's not like the songs are better than they were before.. they're just... Nada Surf. They make good songs, uh.. gooder...