Since the nineties, Nada Surf have been reliable in an indie world that usually lacks reliability. While other alt-boom artists disappeared in the new century/millennium, Nada Surf have not only stuck around, but have kept going with their catchy indie-rock. That continues very much with the power-pop & uplift of their latest, Never Not Together.
“So Much Love” opens the record by letting you know what it’s about, celebrating life (even in these times), with the catchy indie-rock power-pop Nada Surf has done for a few decades, as do other tracks like “Something I Should Do” and closer “Ride In the Unknown”, though “Something” didn’t need the fast-spoken side vocals (this is the band that talked “Popular”), and both “Love” and “Unknown” oddly bring to mind the “morning sun” chorus of New Order’s eighties classic, “True Faith”.
There are sadder songs on Never Not Together, like the wistful “Live Learn & Forget” and the melancholy “Crowded Star”, and “Mathilda” goes through acoustic, spacey, rocking, and glowing. But Nada Surf are still upbeat, and still here.
