Good Morning!
Today we’re listening to “Always Love” by Nada Surf
There are countless bands that never escape the millstone of being one-hit wonders. Some are okay with that, and use up every last bit of runway they can. Others thrash & wail, eventually flaming out.
And some make peace with it, figuring out how to move past it.
26 years ago, you couldn’t get too far without hearing “Popular,” Nada Surf’s caustic look at life in high school. It was infectious, and the band was riding high…until they weren’t.
They might’ve been off the charts, but they weren’t done making music (including what might be the wildest cover ever of New Order’s “Bizarre Love Triangle.”).
“Always Love” is on the band’s 2005 release “The Weight Is a Gift.” It starts calm before growing into a solid power-pop track about life and how to navigate it.
Like most people that survive Lord of The Flies high school, you come out with a more wizened perspective on things.
More:
Q: Is there a story behind the title of the new album?
A: It comes from one of the lyrics on the album. The line goes “Maybe this weight was a gift. I had to see how much I could lift.” We were searching for album titles and I heard Matthew sing that line and it really jumped out at me. It really sort of made me kind of tear up when I heard it because I thought it was so very true. What he did was he took a situation that was very difficult for him, a personal situation, and turned it into something really beautiful and positive and that is the core idea of this record, that you can take something really awful and depending on how you deal with it, you know, you can let it sink you or you can just get stronger and swim with it.
Read the full interview with drummer Ira Elliot here.
SIDEBAR: Does anyone else here recall watching the band playing at one of MTV’s Spring Break concerts and seeing Elliot run off stage mid-set towards the ocean? I could swear this happened, but Google was not my friend.
Listen:
“Always Love” by Nada Surf | The Weight Is a Gift, 2005
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Thanks for being here,
Kevin—
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Great choice with Nada Surf. The Weight Is a Gift and its predecessor Let Go are the true gems of their catalog. Let Go came out the tail end of my senior year of high school and was a huge hit with my friends. I've always held them in high regard as I remember my buddy and his girlfriend showed up to their show early and the band took them to dinner. Too cool and something they totally didn't need to do!
Have you featured this artist before because this vibe sounds so familiar! 👍🏽