Never Not Together

Following their almost terrifyingly sophisticated 2016 live orchestral production Peaceful Ghosts, Nada Surf return with their ninth studio album, 2020s sprawling and spiritually poetic Never Not Together. The albums title is reportedly a paraphrase of something Bon Ivers Justin Vernon said while appearing on the podcast Song Exploder: ...holy math says were never not together. It appears mid-album on the track Something I Should Do during an extended spoken word section from lead singer Matthew Caws. Hearing Caws intensely (if sometimes unnervingly) babbling over a grungy instrumental vamp certainly evokes the groups classic 1996 single Popular. However, where that song was a witty satire about teen culture, Something I Should Do is a stream-of-consciousness rumination about the increasingly fractious state of the world and Caws desire for a more loving and selfless existence. In doing so, he invokes such wide-ranging ideas as Socrates dictum that an unexamined life is not worth living, that empathy is good, lack of empathy is bad, and that the tulip craze of the 17th century has something to teach us about our current state of tribalism (?). Its Byzantine and weird, but its also one of the most driving and hooky songs on the album, which speaks to the level of experimentation and soul-searching at play here. Tracks like So Much Love, Come Get Me, and Live Learn and Forget, are lyrical anthems rife with an electric, 90s-style power pop shimmer. And the band doesnt rein in their creativity, instead they push their sound outward, weaving in strings, saxophones, and, as on the yearning, Flaming Lips-esque Looking for You, a boys choir. The rush of good vibes that they hit you with is life-affirming. However, other moments here arent trying to hook you with a sugary chorus at all. Maybe its just the sound of a band thats aging, toiling with lifes deeper issues both spiritual and social. Either way, its a weighty confluence of feelings that can catch you off guard. For instance, the song Mathilda begins as a brilliant folk confessional about Caws experiences with bullying during his youth, but eventually transitions into a spiraling, long-form psych-prog meditation on gender issues. Theres nothing bad about taking such a big swing; its definitely better than pulling your punches at this point in your career. As with much of Never Not Together, its beautifully thoughtful and fantastically ambitious. ~ Matt Collar

グッド・メロディー×ギター・ロックという至ってシンプルな音楽性を持ちながら、〈パワー・ポップ〉とか〈ギター・ポップ〉とか、そういう紋切り型の言葉じゃ表現しきれない不思議な魅力は、6年ぶりとなるこの9枚目のアルバムでも変わらないどころか、ますます磨きが掛かってきた。ブルックリンの4人組が27年かけて達した円熟の境地。煌めきのなかに滲ませる味わい深さは格別だ。
bounce (C)山口智男