Nada Surf

Moon Mirror, the new album from Nada Surf, has everything that fans love and expect from them. Bittersweet anthems that start quietly but then build up to powerful harmonies? Exactly. Songs that feel like heartbeats? That's right. Songs that are poetic and thought-provoking, while being absolute masterpieces that you can sing along to at the top of your lungs from an open window? That's right. It's all there.

Moon Mirror is an exciting and moving leap forward for Nada Surf. The songs on the album are true to the human experience - as meaningful, mysterious and sometimes absurd as it is. It's about love, yes, but also about grief, deep loneliness, doubt, wonder and hope. These are not the songs of a band in their 20s. There's hard-won wisdom and hard-won faith in possibility here - the kind that comes from falling down and getting back up.

‘Give Me The Sun’ (‘I'm looking for something/ I can't say exactly what’), ‘Second Skin’ (‘I'm tired of living in this second skin/ I want to let everything in’) and ‘Moon Mirror’ (‘connect me to something’) deal with being present and open, paying attention and seeking connection in a world that feels alienated with its all-at-once-ness. ‘In Front of Me Now’ is a song against multitasking and sleepwalking through the one life we have. The song asks: ‘Why wasn't I present? I should have lived.

Photo credit: Matthew Caws