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Nada Surf

Nada Surf "The Stars Are Indifferent To Astronomy" album

- Release date : January 2012 -

The Stars Are Indifferent To Astronomy is the seventh studio album by American alternative rock band Nada Surf. It is their first album of original songs since 2008's Lucky. The album was released on January 23, 2012 in UK/EU and on January 24, 2012 in the U.S.

"The Stars Are Indifferent To Astronomy" album tracks and lyrics

"The Stars Are Indifferent To Astronomy" album reviews

Nada Surf celebrate their 20th anniversary with The Stars Are Indifferent to Astronomy, the band's seventh studio album and first collection of original material since 2008's Lucky. "Every birthday candle that ever got blown out is one more year of someone trying to figure it all out," Matthew Caws sings in "Looking Through," a song about aging gracefully and holding onto one's youth. Most of the other tunes follow suit; "No Snow on the Mountain" finds its narrator coming to grips with the real world after leaving academia, and "Teenage Dreams" deals with... well, teenage dreams. Now in his mid-forties, Caws is old enough to be cynical about all this heart-on-your-sleeve stuff, but Astronomy sounds as timeless and wide-eyed as any Nada Surf album, taking its cues from 1960s Merseybeat, '80s college rock, and 21st century power pop in equal measure. Those influences are rolled into ten sparkling guitar pop tunes, which Caws and his bandmates -- bassist Daniel Lorca, drummer Ira Elliot, and guest guitarist Doug Gillard -- drench with vocal harmonies and candied hooks. "When I Was Young" is the only track to substitute acoustic guitar arpeggios for electric power chords, but even that song builds itself into a lush, midtempo power ballad after the two-minute mark, as though the bandmates simply couldn't contain their optimism any longer. Like the title suggests, Stars burns bright and fast.

*** by Andrew Leahey, All Music Guide ***

The Guardian’s recent claim that indie rock is suffering a slow and painful death (underlined by Official Charts Company figures showing that pop albums just outsold rock albums for the first time in seven years) at least makes a change from the Rock Is Dead debate that reappears with comet-style regularity. But when you’re not Radiohead (and at a pinch, the retro-themed Horrors), there’s enough evidence that few guitar bands have reinvention on the agenda. A case in point: New York trio Nada Surf’s sixth album (not including 2010’s covers project If I Had A Hi-Fi). It’s been four years since Lucky, which as usual sat somewhere between R.E.M. and Hüsker Dü, without the distinct charisma of either but as capable of euphoric uplift with hearts hanging out on sleeves. But it might as well be four minutes for all the change The Stars Are Indifferent to Astronomy heralds. Perhaps the album should be named Bands Are Indifferent to Change.

In other words, here are more guitar songs that chime, soar and swing, with singer/guitarist Matthew Caws sounding as naïve and blessed as a teenager – one track is even called Teenage Dreams, like he’s still connected to the original source of what inspired him to pick up a guitar. Behind him, rhythm section Daniel Lorcas and Ira Elliott resemble a finely meshed springboard. From the second Clear Eye Clouded Mind hits the ground, with one of Caw’s best formula hooks – dreamy verse, bristling chorus – it’s like the feel-good hit of the winter. Waiting for Something shows Caws can carve hooks with both voice and guitar, with harmonies springing from a Beatles/Byrds fount. Cellos add another layer of bliss to When I Was Young’s swooning tempo changes, with a guitar coda that emulates hard rock’s lighters-aloft model.

Yet as Caws sings "I always feel like I’m waiting for something," one wonders if that something is a sign of change, or growth (it may be a small embellishment, but even the Bacharach-ian horns/strings interlude on Let the Fight Do the Fighting – Caws loves his oblique platitudes – feels like a step on). Which is ironic given the album’s core theme is the passage of time, and how we are to face the future: to be youthful, or responsible? Can adults change as we grow older? Does change matter when the component parts of this record prove that indie rock may be ‘dying’ commercially but still sounds alive and kicking? After all, we’re not talking the moribund state of affairs that another Viva Brother record might bring. Like stars are indifferent to astronomy, guitar bands are indifferent to sales figures, and so it should remain.

*** by Martin Aston, BBC Music ***

Nada Surf have managed to squeeze in several lives over the course of almost two decades together. They’ve been called one-hit wonders, sophomore slumpers, dead-and-goners, and have emerged relatively unscathed to find themselves in the year 2012.

Of course, it doesn’t hurt that guitarist-vocalist Matthew Caws knows his way around a pop hook or two. And while Nada Surf’s 1996 debut LP High/Low fit perfectly with the times, and their single “Popular” essentially became a parody of the self-loathing ’90s, the New York trio more than made up for it with the pristine pop found on later releases, most notably 2005’s near-perfect The Weight Is a Gift.

The Stars Are Indifferent to Astronomy may be a mouthful to say, but the contents within are straight to the point—10 songs, no filler, that won’t necessarily knock you out of your seat, but rather leave you wanting to lean back and stay a while.

That’s not to say the album lacks energy. Opener “Clear Eye Clouded Mind” sets the pace with furious guitar strums and ratatat drumming, while Caws’ vocals hover sweetly above. In fact, with the exception of lead single “When I Was Young” and “Let the Fight Do the Fighting,” Stars cruises along with an immediacy that’s been missing from the last two Nada Surf records. And of course Stars is dripping with sentimentality. “Teenage Dreams” is the highlight here as Caws continues his tradition of love it-or-hate it turns of phrase as he waxes about being moved to tears by a subway breakdancer: “Sometimes I ask the wrong questions, but I get the right answers.”

A lot of credit should be given to the rhythm-section of bassist Daniel Lorca and drummer Ira Elliot, who are lock-step throughout. Perhaps even more credit should go to producer Chris Shaw, who smartly pushes them up in the mix while deftly balancing live grit with studio sheen. And Caws’ vocals have never sounded better, still capable of breaking a heart or two.

At the end of the day Nada Surf aren’t particularly sexy or easy to compartmentalize. They’ve simply survived on their songs. Then again, at the end of the day a great pop song is all you need.

*** by Mark Lore, Paste Magazine ***