Nada Surf, Let Go

(Barsuk)

For all of you who remember MTV's Buzz Bin days, Nada Surf's novelty-written-all-over-it hit "Popular" may still be tucked somewhere in the back of your minds. For those of you who don't, all the better. The Nada Surf who recently released Let Go, which is being hailed by critics all over as one of the best of the year, couldn't be further from the band that once talk/sang the line "If you see Johnny Football Hero in the hall, tell him he played a good game!"

Let Go is a near-perfect album, an achingly beautiful collection of good old-fashioned sadness. Singer Matthew Caws, who once seemed unremarkable, floats above intense guitar rhythms with his smooth, Brian Wilson-esque tenor. The album opens with "Blizzard of '77," a short, intense ballad that grows on you with every listen. By the time Caws is repeating the final line, "I miss you more than I knew," you know you're in for something great.

Following is "Happy Kid," power pop at its best, and then comes the otherworldly third track, "Inside of Love." "Inside of Love" is that song on any album that pulls you in and makes you ache; not only is it so true and beautiful, but it manages to keep the lightest touch. "I wanna know what it's like/ on the inside of love," Caws sings, "I'm standing at the gates/ I see the beauty above." Sure, it's depressing and it's familiar territory, but the melody pulls you in with such bleak longing that you cannot forget it.

"Fruit Fly" is compelling (and even starts to rock out at the end), and "Blonde on Blonde" is another stand-out, capturing a feeling many of us have had. Caws has had enough of other people; he doesn't want to hear from anyone but Bob Dylan, streaming from the speakers of his stereo.

Let Go is an album that doesn't need much explanation. It is not a concept album, nor is it experimental. Its delicate melodies ring clear and sweet, Caws' voice guiding them. Nada Surf can be closely compared to contemporaries Teenage Fanclub in their simplicity, and at some points one can hear the happy/sad echo of the Beach Boys. The rest of the album has only two take-or-leave-them tracks, "The Way You Wear Your Head" and the all-in-French "Là Pour Ça" (cute idea, but not such an interesting song), with the rest glowing bright through the end.

"Hi-Speed Soul," one of the faster tracks, begs a singalong, while "Killian's Red," "Neither Heaven nor Space," and "Treading Water" manage to perfect a certain type of melancholy without being overbearing. The final track, "Paper Boats," however, trumps them all.

"All I am is a body floating downwind,"Caws states in what is perhaps the most hopeless pop chorus in recent memory.

"Paper Boats" is extremely hopeless, but not unreasonably so. The lyrics seem to fit, and the melody is soft and instantly heart-wrenching. Especially irresistible is the simple second verse: "What's wrong?/ nothing./ Are you sure nothing's wrongz// yeah./ But you're sad about something/ yeah./ So tell me what/ I don't know." The song lets you feel sad with it, and even when it brings things up for a burst of a final verse, they inevitably come back down again.

Nada Surf manages to capture a certain feeling with Let Go: a misplaced sadness, something that can't quite be understood. Instead of creating an ice-cold emptiness, as some bands would have done, Nada Surf has created a warm and sweetly melancholy expression of this feeling. As Caws laments in "Fruit Fly," "Nothing looks right/ Nothing smells right/ and I can't land." Caws may feel like everything is wrong, but if there's one thing true of Let Go, it's that everything sounds right.
 

Kathleen Edwards, Failer

(Zo&235;)

Kathleen Edwards may be from Ottawa, Canada, but she sounds like she's straight out of Nashville, and in the best way possible. Edwards is a little bit country, but not Shania Twain country. She is of the same weary, bleary-eyed, crying-in-your-beer school as Ryan Adams (especially when he was with Whiskeytown), pre-Satellite Rides Old 97s and Sheryl Crow in Sheryl's wildest dreams. The opening line of the record comes from the slang of a grizzled old soul, not a 24-year-old: "Copper on the corner and he loaded two rounds."

This line comes from the album's first single, "Six O'Clock News," which is instantly catchy and just twangy enough to be great. The second song, "One More Song the Radio Won't Like," rivals it for best-of-the-album. Though the verses are incredibly reminiscent of Liz Phair, the chorus is all Kathleen Edwards. Edwards' voice is also unique: it has a roughness that betrays her youth, and cannot easily be compared to anyone. A little less rough and she could sound like Liz Phair, a little more shrill and she could sound like Sheryl Crow.

Failer is a sad, short (ten tracks), bluesy album with bite. Edwards paints scenes of desperate, drunken nights, doing people wrong and being done wrong to. She may be drowning her sorrows, but Edwards is ready to fight back. In the solemn "Hockey Skates," she asks, "Do you think your boys club will crumble/ Just because of a loud-mouthed girl?"

"Lone Wolf" is a twisted folk tale, while "12 Bellevue" bursts with trumpets and country-rock guitar. Edwards does a good job of mixing it up between the more somber ballads ("Mercury," "Sweet Little Duck") and the all-out rockers ("Maria"). "National Steel," a ballad, is one of the prettiest on the album, using violin and bright harmonies to perfection.

Failer works because it is difficult to decide which type of song Edwards does the best. The rock songs force out the pain through harsh words and gritty guitar, while she lets the ballads draw out with a rough, tired ache.

In "Westby," Edwards does something rare: she reminds us of her youth. She sings, "If you weren't so old I'd probably keep you/ If you weren't so old I'd tell my friends/ But I don't think your wife would like my friends." Failer is a great album for anyone who has ever driven alone on a country road, singing along with the radio and feeling decades older than their age. In her mind, Kathleen Edwards has seen it all, and it has left her with enough soul and heartache to express in ten beautiful ways.