Lana Del Rey | Born To Die

It’s been a long time since someone has come around like Lana Del Rey. Someone that divides opinion in the way she does. Someone that people love or loathe. Someone that has confused and confounded in equal measure.

Perhaps it is the confusing back story, involving both an extremely wealthy father and a stint living in a trailer park. Or the scrap-that-and-start-again reinvention from Lizzy Grant to Lana Del Rey. Or, you know, the huge lips. One thing is for sure: those that don’t like Lana Del Rey really don’t like her. But the reasons for doing so are rarely the actual tunes.

So with expectation, hype and backlash having already spread their wings since Video Games went up on Youtube six months ago, will Born To Die, in all it’s 12-track glory, finally put things to bed? The answer in as emphatic no.

What you can’t deny, no matter which camp you stand in, is that Born To Die does posses some seriously good songs. It’s biggest problem however is that, with the release of various singles and the Lana Del Rey EP, you’ve probably already heard them.

If you delve into this record in search of something more beautiful or haunting as Video Games, you will be disappointed. If you want something more knowingly cheeky as Off To The Races, you will come away disappointed. If you want something as slow-burningly delicious as its title track or the sticky Blue Jeans, yup you’ve guessed it. But let’s not forget that these tracks do appear here, no matter how familiar we already are with them. That they make up the opening quartet ensures Born To Die gets off to a magnificent, if not rather well-thumbed start.

That it’s followed by one-two punch of ultra-poppy Diet Mountain Dew – her love letter to New York – and National Anthem – on which she shimmy’s and pouts more than any other track, something you will either love or find difficult to listen to – confirms that the first six tracks are of real quality.

What they also do however is set its writer up for one hell of a fall. You see, much like her audience her debut album is, quite literally, split right down the middle. It’s final six tracks stumble and are unsure of what they are trying to achieve. In essence, they sound chronically underwritten. Lifeless.

None of them are total disasters, no. They all posses a half-decent chorus but that’s what you get when you work with a team of professional songwriters. You get what you pay for. Dark Paradise, which finds Del Rey ‘lying in the ocean singing your song’ and glides along over the top of a stuttering, cheap beat, has all the trimmings of the ‘big love song’ but she sounds detached and hollow. The sound of a love song being sung by someone that’s never truly felt the pains and joys of being swept up in it.

Radio again, possesses a sugary sweet chorus in which she urges you to ‘pick me up and take me like a vitamin’. However, it’s the bridge, in which she delivers a breathy ‘no-one even knows how hard life was, I don’t even think about it now because’, that is rather hard to swallow. Without any further explanation or supporting lyrics, it sounds like a cheap trick to get a decent soundbite.

Summertime Sadness, the records penultimate track, picks things up a little with a neat tempo shift in its swollen chorus. That it’s the latter six’s highpoint yet could easily be a Lady Gaga song perhaps highlights the biggest weakness of Del Rey’s: she hasn’t yet developed her persona or her sound to stick to it over 12 tracks. In artistic terms, she’s incredibly young.

Let’s keep things in perspective though. It’s her debut album. There are enough very good songs here to suggest she is an artist that deserves to be nurtured and given time. Album number two could be very interesting.

There are as many flaws in Born To Die as there are shining moments of beauty. Many have already made their minds up on Lana Del Rey and this isn’t the kind of album to change those opinions. It’s been a long time since someone has come around like Lana Del Rey, and I for one am glad she did.

With the synth indie-pop sound of a band somewhere in between Pulp and Arcade Fire you would expect a perfect recipe for success. This is almost what you get with alternative hopefuls Spector.

Fronted by Fred Macpherson (who previously featured in Les Incompetents and Ox.Eagle.Lion.Man. ) and battle-hardened by honing their skills in an East London snooker club they signed to Luv Luv Luv Records, released 3 singles and were nominated for the BBC Sound of 2011 award. Not what you would call a bad year then.

New single Chevy Thunder neatly sums up what they are about: big drums, skyline synths and plenty of “woah-woahs”. Debut single Never Fade Away has obvious suggestions of an indie ballad and contains simple but politely sweet lyrics when MacPherson tells his lover “you know i’ll never fade away, but if I do, it will be because you asked me to”. Again, the instrumentation is set to skyscraper levels of hugeness. Subtlety isn’t something Spector aim for.

What they do aim for, and regularly hit, is the part of the brain that thoroughly enjoys it when great pop songs are disguised under thick layers of real instruments. The band is blossoming with talent.

Their ambition is scary too, with MacPherson recently tweeting at his dissatisfaction of being brought into the ‘guitar music is dead’ debate by claiming “we’re a pop group like One Direction and The Beatles”. Their choruses could certainly rival those of 1D.

With their debut album due for release this year it looks like it should be an exciting and enjoyable year for newcomers Spector.

SPECTOR

If your surname has the word stave buried within it you better end up being musical.

Emily, Jessica and Camilla Staveley-Taylor, three sisters from Watford, and together The Staves, are one of the folk bands to look out for in 2012. Their brushed-acoustics and unfussy delivery will no doubt draw comparisons to Laura Marling, while support slots with James Vincent McMorrow and Mt Desolation confirm they are certainly aiming to plough the turf of the rootsy, nu-folk songbook.

While comparisons are going to be made, this does not mean that the trio do not deserve their own recognition; they combine guitar parts that resonate with tonality and implausibly beautiful vocal harmonies.  Songs like Winter Trees are clever in the way that they own both a chilling soul and a warm resonance. Like many sibling groups it is when the girls break into their delicately woven harmonies that they shine, perhaps best highlighted on the brilliant Mexico.

With their debut album overseen by the legendary Glyn Johns and due for release later in the year, the girls are making sure they don’t get carried away. In a great interview with Nick Parkhouse they set out their stall: “As for conquering the world, we don’t know. We just want to make music that people feel a connection to, that they enjoy listening to and that we like.”

For now though there is more recording and more gigs and a tour in support of the BBC Poll winner Michael Kiwanuka. Keep your eyes peeled though, we’ll hear more of these guys soon.

If ever there was a band to soundtrack your Spring 2012, this is it.

THE STAVES  |  NICK PARKHOUSE

She did however keep the germs at bay long enough to pop in to both BBC 6 Music and BBC Radio 1 this week.

The former saw her deliver stripped-back versions of Video Games and Born To Die, cutting away everything apart from the bare essentials. You can download these below.

The latter, a session for Radio 1′s Zane Lowe can be viewed here.

Download – Video Games (Live on BBC Radio 6)

Download – Born To Die (Live on BBC Radio 6)

On the eve of the release of their seventh album, When The Gramophone Rings sits down with indie veterans Nada Surf to discuss their new ambition, why recording a covers album freed them up and why it’s never good to be hot.

“Oh I could so some of that…”

It’s a sunny but freezing cold morning in central London and Nada Surf frontman Matthew Caws is in cheerful discussion with WTGR about the merits of vintage shopping in Essex’s ‘tranquil haven’ Saffron Walden. As bizarre as it sounds, it’s not entirely without reason. Having moved to the UK with his family 9 months ago he now resides in the nearby Cambridge.

Caws has reason to be jolly. Exactly a week before his band’s 7th album is released, The Stars Are Indifferent To Astronomy has, this very day, started streaming on NPR and feedback is positive. Drummer Ira Elliott hasn’t read it, having just arrived from the airport after a flight in from New York.  When bassist Daniel Lorca joins us – all matted dreadlocks and to-the-floor trenchcoat – we settle down outside a fancy cafe. As the band order some breakfast and pull on bobble hats WTGR finds a group in good mood, armed with their first album of original material in four years and one  that has, in the main, been well-received.

“There’s a time to restart the engine and get something that’s short and fast…”

In the build up to the release of Stars… you’ve talked a lot about wanting to record something that captures your live show. How much was that mission statement defined by the fun you had making (2010 covers albums) if i had a hi fi?

MC: Pretty directly actually. The thing with that record was that the songs were already written and it was, you know, it was striking how that was such a different experience. I was like, ‘this is really fun’.  The thing was from the moment we were working on the covers record in practice, since the songs were already written we’d just be playing all the time. So the whole time we were practicing we were playing the songs top to bottom and that helped us play them more like a gig. The way we’ve been working that last few years before that, that wouldn’t have necessarily been possible cos we didn’t really know what we were doing!

DL: Normally what happens after a tour cycle is that we take a relatively long break and then we get back together and start working on new stuff and we didn’t wanna take a long break and you know, so we were like ‘lets do this fun covers record thing’. So we sorta did that right away. Then as soon as we were done with the touring we really felt like getting to work on one of our own records, so we never really did one of that long break before this one.

It was on that tour cycle you did the album shows, playing your records in their entirety. Was looking back a key part of moving forward?

MC: Well we had to really sit there and really listen to those records which, you know, underlined this feeling that maybe live we play a little differently to how we do in the studio and also, in another sense, just for me personally there was a lot of…having to listen to all these songs and sort of seeing that there are some types of things that I keep on revisiting again and again and again. A lot of it was really self-regarding and even though there’s still a bunch of stuff like that on this record I don’t think there’s as much of it because I was consciously trying to avoid that kind of self-analysis.

And is the deliberate attempt to capture your live sound and this new-song energy a reaction to anything about Lucky?

DL: I remember us saying once that we thought we had quite well covered the base of the sort of….well done…

IE: …mid tempo…

MC: …trying to be a bit elegant. We always would sort of hold back a little bit. We’d often do things in the studio then be like ‘lets slow this down a little bit and see if it still works’ and that’s probably a really good and healthy thing to do but if anyone wants to hear us try and be a really careful and elegant band then they can go listen to those records.

They’re a bit of trilogy aren’t they?

IE: Yeh I think without even saying so much there’s a time to restart the engine and get something that’s short and fast. It’s like ‘ok, let’s get back into gear’. It seemed like the right thing to do.

“We’re the Rob Brydon of rock. We do a very fine Michael Caine as well…”

You are trying to capture a new-song energy yet haven’t released new material in four years. How easy is that when you potentially have songs that are at least four years old (since the release of Lucky).

IE: One or two were lying around…

MC: …but a lot of them are new.

IE: The When I Was Young thing was floating around for a year or two…

MC: ..but they are the exceptions. The chorus of When I Was Young is seven years old I believe and just… I happened to be working on something else that felt right and it became what it is now. But a bunch of them were written in the few months before, which I think helps. We didn’t have time to get bored of them.

You can hear that some of them seem like they’re being written as you’re recording them.

MC: Yeh definitely! For sure! What a great thing. The song Looking Through, we wrote the bass part the night before and didn’t really play it all the way through in the studio until the take that’s on the record. It’s nice to have a bit of that.

DL: We had a bunch of other songs from other albums, and sometimes we either recycle or revisit them but generally its never on the next record. We tend to skip a record so that’s why When I Was Young is like, seven or eight years old yet on this album.

Was that your decision to make When I Was Young the first thing people heard from the album?

MC: No that was actually our manager, who’s not usually involved on a musical level at all. From the moment he heard that chorus however many years ago was on some evangelical mission to make it happen, so that was really kind of his baby. Not in the writing of it, but in the…. I think I did put a little more effort into it as he’s a really good friend.

It struck me as interesting choice for people to hear first…

IE: It does leave an impression that’s for sure…

MC: It’s an interesting move and kind of fun when you put out something non-representative first and so to do that you have to believe that it’s really worth hearing and that the surprise of hearing the rest of the record and it being nothing like that won’t be disappointment. It’s a slightly confident move. I’m really glad we did it.

Practically, how did you go about recording an album that you wanted to capture quite an intangible element – the energy of a gig?

MC: It was super-quick. Two things: One… For a long time we’d been making our records out of town (New York City) cos we wanted to get away from distractions but that wouldn’t really work any more cos we’d end up with friends there so we didn’t get away from the temptation of like, you know, having a dinner party or going out a lot. We also find out that when travelling you’d finish the last day of rehearsal and even if you were ready to start right away you’d go home, pack up the apartment and the flights two days later…

DL: All the gears gotta be put in flight cases and moved across the country…

MC: Then jetlag happens and you maybe play to the excuse cos you want a bit more time to finish writing and then being in a strange environment means you have to reacquaint yourselves with the songs. Any kind of muscle memory is gonna be gone. But in this case… I don’t know what day it was. Lets say it was a Sunday was our last day of practice. Then on the Monday we rolled the gear three blocks down the street to the nearest good studio. That’s literally where we recorded. It’s exactly between Daniel’s house and my house. And we did it in five days.

The whole thing?

MC: All the basic tracks. And then we mucked around with guitar tones a bit more back at The Loft. What’s great about that is that you can’t revisit anything and when you do a take it can’t be like ‘yeeeeh that could be the one’ its like ‘no, its got to be the one!’.

And Chris Shaw’s appointment as producer, was that born out of wanting to get a live feel or was he on board before that?

DL: He wasn’t really gonna be the producer at all.

MC: Yeh. He was actually only hired as an engineer but… he doesn’t really advertise himself as a producer, he’s a little soft-spoken about it but in fact he is incredibly capable. But you know for a while partially because of moving here (England) we were sort of maybe thinking about making a record in England, which would have been really tempting and possibly getting John Leckie or Gil Norton in to produce it. But then we had the idea of recording in New York and all of a sudden it’s like wait ‘wait, that guy’s local’ and he’d mixed Always Love and done such an incredible, phenomenal, fast job that once his name popped into the air there was no hesitating.

If the record was recorded so quickly I’m assuming most of the songs must have been pretty nailed before you entered the studio?

MC: There were two missing. The song at the end of the record called The Future had no arrangement we just had Ira play some beats and I just sort of had a three-chord thing in mind and sort of kind of the words of maybe a chorus. So that one was left up to chance. Then Looking Through didn’t exist. And writing right up until the last moment, I don’t think that could have happened with our other records cos we didn’t have the luxury of… if I was going to do some “work” there was a lot of other stuff that needed finishing and if I would have just started on a new song that would have been reckless. So we went in with 8 and that felt like enough.

IE: I loved when it clocked in at 38 minutes and 38 seconds. That’s a proper length for a record. A lot of bands really wear out their welcome.

“We’re completely powerless. Global warming is indifferent to our belief or disbelief that it exists. And just because you’re a doubter isn’t going to save you one bit when you’re frying…”

The UK press is currently obsessed with the current so-called death of guitar music. Do you get that at all out in the States?

IE: There was a huge article I think in the Times about how last year was supposedly the worst year for rock music. We still have the, sort of, stalwart Foo Fighters and stuff but, the American major league guitar rock is pretty thin on the ground at the moment. It’s pretty much rehash after rehash. We need a blast of guitars. It’s a bad time for guitars.

MC: Dave Grohl was in Rolling Stone or something recently and he was like “guitar music is alive and well thank you very much, it doesn’t need your help”. Because in a way…. it’s thin on the ground in a Top 10 sort of way, it’s all hip-hop but there are loads of good records around and that’s never going to go away. I didn’t even know that’s where we were at. So that’s even better that this is the time we put out our real guitar record.

One word that pops up time and time again on your write ups is veteran. Do you take that as a compliment in an age where a lot of bands get dropped after 1 or 2 records?

MC: I mean… we didn’t do anything to earn than just stay but it’s nice to get a little props for it.

IE: I think it’s especially true of English bands that sell millions of albums first time out and second time out they sell a quarter of that then pretty soon you can’t even remember their names. The thing is – never be hot. I was watching Rob Brydon and Steve Coogan in The Trip and Rob Brydon’s like, “never be hot, always be warm”. If you’re hot then people have these impossible expectations that you have to live up to. We’re the Rob Brydon of rock. We do a very fine Michael Caine as well.

Your now 7 albums in. Is the feeling of excitement before your releasing your 7^th album as strong as before releasing your debut?

MC: I’m actually more excited about this period of touring than I have been for a really long time for the simple reason that we made a record that to me sounds like we want to sound onstage. The goal is clear and it wasn’t always before. It’s a tiny thing but we would play faster than our albums live and the end result was good but there were a lot of moments where we were doing it but you almost feel like you’re doing something wrong cos you’re playing so much faster so we’d push and pull and be in this confused place. On this one we’d practice for the tour and it was a breeze, just so much fun.

IE: We’re actually going to play this record reeeeeeeeeaaaaaally slooooooooowly liiiiiiiiiiiiive.

Lyrically, are Nada Surf a band that release albums that have messages? Is there a message throughout Stars…?

MC: I would say two answers. One is no, nothing in particular but there are some things that come back a few times. If I had to say something…this record is more about the outside world and I think having a child changes things and changes how much I pay attention to nature and where we’re going there. If the world were to get really hairy or end in ten years or something I’d be 54. I wouldn’t really care. I’ve had a good run, a full life. But having a son is like, well he’s gonna live through whatever it is. In fact, it’s kind of in the title. That’s why it resonated with me so much cos it’s an expression my father wrote which basically says that a dog doesn’t know it’s called a dog and a cat doesn’t know it’s called a cat and the stars and planets don’t know we gave them names, and they don’t care. And it doesn’t mean that we don’t interact with nature and enjoy nature but it’s a one way relationship.

What it made me think of is how we’re pretty presumptuous in thinking that our opinions about the physical and natural world…that they’re accurate. We’re completely powerless. Global warming is indifferent to our belief or disbelief that it exists. And just because you’re a doubter isn’t going to save you one bit when you’re frying or whatever. So there’s that.  I guess there’s also a little bit on there about the frittering away of our minds and just how people look at a screen and self-checkouts and gadgets.

Do you think those things are negative things?

MC: ……yeh. I mean, you know, I don’t think people know how to sit still as much so maybe you’re out of touch with your actual thoughts. And it’s too entertaining at this point, we might choke on it. I’m the same way, you can be endlessly entertained so the niche aspect of everything means that you can find the cable news show that reflects to you exactly what you think already and you’ll never learn anything and you’ll be in the symbiotic death dance.

So you won’t be buying your kid an iPad any time soon?

MC: I actually just got him a Wii yesterday. The world is the world. You can only try and steer better.

The Stars Are Indifferent To Astronomy is out now.

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The 2 Bears | Be Strong

The 2 Bears – a duo made up of Hot Chip’s Joe Goddard and London DJ Raf Rundell that has now spawned an LP and a Ministry of Sound radio show – have had to wait a while to get their debut album to us, after forming back in 2009. Both posses busy schedules when their day jobs are live and kicking but with Goddard’s band mates Alexis Taylor (solo career) and Al Doyle (LCD Soundsystem) also involved in other projects while Hot Chip are on the backburner, Be Strong has been constructed, layer by joyful layer in what most people would call “downtime”.

When looking at its members you’d be a fool to expect a crooning country album, so it’s with little surprise but smiles all round that the record bursts into life on opener The Birds & The Bees. Starting with strong synths and a steady beat and finishing on a psychedelic trip with trumpets and glockenspiel, it’s fair to say they’re not afraid to push the boat out. With no lyrical content it works hard to grab the listener’s attention, which is, in essence, exactly what you want from an opening song.

Take A Look Around and Ghosts and Zombies are both infested with funky, powerfully melodic keyboard lines, soulful vocal lines and pulsating bass throbs – exactly what you’d expect from men that specialise in melodic keyboards and pulsating bass throbs, but the songs are full of energy and soul. In the former the lyrics announce, ‘just let the music take control, you’ve got nothing to fear,’ a neat summation of what this song does.

Then there is a rather unexpected transition. Time in Mind, reminiscent of a more urban Noah & The Whale with its lapsteel guitar and broad pop hooks, gets a little – even just a fraction – closer to that crooning country album. Delightfully charming and charmingly delightful it fits perfectly on the album as a slow but somewhat energetic number.

Be Strong could do with a few more moments of such disparity. It’s downfall being the repetitive nature of their mission statement. Mid tempo pop song follows mid tempo pop song for much of this record.

With it’s opening organ and bursting lyrics of love, the appropriately titled Church ends the whole thing on a positive note as a greatly expressive, and more importantly non-gooey love song. Once the introductory organ fades the track lifts up into a – yup, you’ve guessed it – infectious bouncy melody, and another good vocal line that sucks you into the song. It is perhaps the right way to close matters: an enjoyable, fun but hardly classic song ending an enjoyable, fun but hardly classic album.

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First Aid Kit | The Lions Roar

Swedish sisters Johanna and Klara Söderberg have come a long way since they first captured wide attention with their haunting rendition of Fleet Foxes ballad, Tiger Mountain Peasant Song back in 2009. Following on from their debut studio album The Big Black and Blue, First Aid Kit are back with the release of The Lion’s Roar and have, in move aimed at progressing their timid sound,  landed themselves indie producer Mike Mogis (Bright Eyes).

Heavily influenced by their love of folk and country, Lion’s Roar enjoyably finds the sisters staying true to their crystal clear vocals and world weary lyrics but experimenting with an Americana-inspired full instrumental band.

This spell-binding album begins with the title track The Lion’s Roar which opens with Klara’s bewitching voice and raw acoustic guitar. It soon develops into a rush of bittersweet harmonies that takes you on a five minute journey that perfectly sets the scene for the nine tracks that follow.

Emmylou, the sister’s new single, romanticises country masters of eras past including the likes of Gram Parsons, June Carter, Johnny Cash and of course, Emmylou Harris. Emphasising the power of singing with the ones they love, they innocently plead ”I’m not asking much of you just sing little darling, sing with me”. The song floats magically along to create the most stunning moment of the album. So high is it’s quality it almost feels brave to have introduced it so early on, that is until you are welcomingly greeted with In The Hearts of Men, which confirms your adoration for the sister’s display of talent and wisdom far beyond their years.

The album reaches its centrepiece with the wonderfully serene To a Poet, a ditty so laced with nostalgia and dreamy harmonies that it serves to encapsulate the very essence of the sister’s unique and personal sound. Their voices chime harmoniously together alongside the most minimalistic of instrumentation, allowing the duo’s multilayered harmonies and flawless vocals to shine brighter.

The girls begin to experiment with darker imagery in the form of Dance to Another Tune that evokes an intrinsicly haunting sadness that, quite simply, will melt your heart. This is swiftly juxtaposed with the following pairing of At New Years Eve and King of The World, where the record reaches a point of true optimism. The latter especially offering an uplifting, campfire strumalong co-written and featuring Conor Oberst as it brings the whole thing to a triumphant finish.

That the sisters manage to so effortlessly create a timeless sound that is vulnerable yet musically mature can only be commended, and thoroughly enjoyed. Transcending the expectations of the listener, The Lion’s Roar has without a doubt become a contender for the most beautiful album of the year.

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On March 6th Bruce will drop Wrecking Ball, his first studio album since 2009′s woeful – and let’s be honest here, it was BAD – Working On A Dream.  One can only hope he’s worked on his dream, fallen asleep, got his beauty rest and woken up refreshed cos we don’t want The Boss rabbiting on about queens of supermarkets now do we? No siree.

Well there are no supermarkets here folks. Just a good ol’ slice of the Magic/Rising-sounding Springsteen stomp that he’ nailed for much of the last decade.

According to his manager, Jon Landau, “Bruce has dug down as deep as he can to come up with this vision of modern life. The lyrics tell a story you can’t hear anywhere else and the music is his most innovative of recent years. The writing is some of the best of his career and both veteran fans and those who are new to Bruce will find much to love on Wrecking Ball.”

Come Brucy, make it a good’n.

It’s been far too long since we last heard any music from Santi White but now, with the announcement of her new LP Master of My Make-Believe comes Big Mouth – her new single.

Anyone expecting Lights Out Mk II will be disappointed. Anyone expecting a wonky, slice of jungle-pop will be pleasantly surprised. Not sure many people will be expecting the latter though, as i’m pretty sure I just made that genre up.

Still, the main point here is the Santigold has a new track. It’s called Big Mouth. Listen below.

Nada Surf | The Stars Are Indifferent To Astronomy

READ AN IN-DEPTH INTERVIEW ABOUT ALL THINGS ‘STARS…’ HERE

If you charted the course of music history you’d be hard-pushed to name more than a handful of covers albums that offered the band a genuine creative spark. Often a worrying sign that its makers have nothing left in the creative tank, it all too often ignites (or is released during) a downward spiral in quality. For further reading of popular warning signs bands or labels like to throw at fans see also the misguided ‘Best Of’ released for absolutely no apparent reason. Indie veterans Nada Surf, who celebrate their 20^th anniversary next year, haven’t yet released a Best Of. They did, however, release a covers album.

2010’s if i had a hifi wasn’t the usual affair though. It didn’t confound the above assumption so much as smash it to pieces and rebuild it, wrapping it as it went in huge swathes of genuine-fan energy and walls of melody. After 2008’s Lucky – the final chapter in a self-confessed trilogy of “well-done, good sounding, mid-tempo” records that began with 2002’s sublime Let Go and continued with 2005’s The Weight Is A Gift – it felt like a needed shot in the arm.

So, in the run-up to the release of The Stars Are Indifferent To Astronomy – a name that refers to the favourite saying of lead singer Matthew Caws’ father, and their first album of original songs in four years – key words and phrases have been “new song energy”, “recreating our live sound” and “faster tempos”.

With the bulk of the album recorded in five days the record fizzes with fun, perfectly encapsulated on the pounding opener Clear Eye Clouded Mind. If the last you heard of the New York trio was the acoustic lament of Lucky’s closing The Film Did Not Go ‘Round then this will be a wake-up call. Grumpy guitars and urgent drums drag a wonderful Caws melody kicking and screaming to the end of its 3.40 minutes. And then it’s gone, as quickly as it came. As reintroductions go it’s exhilarating: the musical equivalent of the ‘this message will self-destruct in…’ voicemails from Mission Impossible. And like those films, no matter how po-faced your pretension lets you be, you can’t help but know that what’s coming next is going to be fun. Very fun indeed.

Stars… is, quite simply and without putting too fine a point on it, a record full of smile-inducingly heart-winning indie-pop tunes. These songs haven’t been fussed over. Often it’s their simplicity and the space within these recordings that allow you to focus on nothing other than the quality of the songwriting present.

Jules & Jim, a wide-eyed, big-hearted triumph sails by on a sea of pop waves and a delightful glockenspiel hook.  Looking Through, all down-strummed guitars and bubbling melody, could well soundtrack a 50’s prom, especially when Caws breaks into the final line of the chorus – “are you dancing, are you dancing at all?”.  As is par for the course now with Nada Surf the almost unrelenting upbeat tunes sometimes mask Caws’ often contrasting lyrics, slipping nods to confusion or world weariness in under the radar:  confessing in Looking Through that “every birthday candle that ever got blown out, is one more year of someone trying to figure it all out.”

Due in the most part to its lightening speed recording the 10 songs here sound remarkably fresh and are free of even the merest ounce of fat. Even the wig-out solo that sees out the slow-burning When I Was Young never feels like it’s outstaying its welcome.

The overriding emotion though, from the listener’s perspective at least, is one of excitement. Excitement that you’re listening to their finest work in ten years. Excitement that in this so-called rut of guitar music a band have recorded a back-to-basics guitar record and triumphed doing it. Excitement that Nada Surf are back.

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