Nada Surf / If I Had A Hi-Fi
Album: If I Had A Hi-Fi   Collection:General
Artist:Nada Surf   Added:Sep 2010
Label:Mardev Records  

A-File Activity
Add Date: 2010-09-26 Pull Date: 2010-11-28
Week Ending: Nov 28 Nov 14 Nov 7 Oct 31 Oct 24 Oct 17 Oct 10 Oct 3
Airplays: 1 1 3 2 2 4 4 1

Recent Airplay
1. Mar 11, 2024: Virtually Happy
Love And Anger (Kate Bush)
4. May 19, 2011: Capture the Flag (In Monster Drag)
Love And Anger (Kate Bush)
2. Apr 20, 2012: Outrun My Gun
Bright Side (Soft Pack)
5. May 05, 2011: The Dismemberment of Aimee Light
The Agony Of Laffitte (Spoon)
3. Feb 10, 2012: InAcrossAwayFromMe
Enjoy The Silence (Depeche Mode)
6. Mar 24, 2011: Treeswinger Radio
The Agony Of Laffitte (Spoon)

Album Review
Trent Kay
Reviewed 2010-09-19
Mellow, bright indie pop covers from the masters of the genre*. Creamy harmonies, catchy emo melodies, beamy guitars, and fine young indie heart-n-soul. Sweet and earnest, with just a tinge of punk. (There is a word for this kind of music, but I’ll refrain from stating it here.) These guys have an innocence about them that has somehow transcended any slam the post-90s indie snots have ever thrown at them. This is an all-covers album of the band’s 12 fave songs -- they manage to breathe life into songs I love anyway, and truly make them their own.

*Don’t know Nada Surf, you say? Sadly, you do. They got ‘known’ with “Popular”, a song that sounds nothing like their other songs. Sometimes, when I listen to it in the context of the record, I envision that some other band -- you know, the same one that recorded the Butthole Surfers’ “Pepper” -- made it instead.

RIYL: The Get Up Kids, Death Cab, Teenage Fanclub, Jimmy Eat World, The Stone Roses

try: 7, 1, 2, 10
no FCCs

*1. bill fox -- moonbeamy electric guitar a la the stone roses. bright, melodic, upbeat, exuberant. fun fact: this guy (bill fox) is pretty much the king of cleveland power pop.
*2. depeche mode -- big hollow drums and heavy bass. great harmonies, fast ripply guitar (just like the intro to ‘happy kid’). they actually acapella the ‘ba ba’s at the end.
3. the go-betweens -- wrenching and gushy intro verse. busy boppy chorus (they freaking acapella the violin line!). dark, dig-in bridge. like the best nada surf songs, manages to make an uptempo pop tune sad as hell.
4. arthur russell -- slow acoustic and naked vocals. short, cute. smartly and perfectly ends on the title of the next track.
5. dwight twilley -- starts with looped upcrawl electric. bright, midtempo reachy glam pop. freaking beautiful harmonies.
6. kate bush -- driving/light stick drums, slow-chord piano anchor. overall mellow yet about-to-pop sound. you keep waiting for it to break into rainbows.
*7. spoon -- “all i ever asked of you is a copy of garage days and to tell me the truth.” pretty nearly perfect -- boingy drums and kitchenware percussion, laid back chillster groove, borrows the harmonies from the original and makes them 3x as great. turns what is really just a libertines-esque demo into a big fat awesome indie track. this song does exactly what a good cover should -- it sounds like, essentially, the song spoon should have written. i like this so much better than the original. the spoon guys probably do too.
8. coralie clement -- looped electric guitar line. shakers and speedy timekeeper bass. bright, harmony-laden chorus. pretty yet mellow. lyrics in french.
9. moody blues -- ha! big, loud, fast & fuzzy... to start. rip-roaring power chords segue into slowwwed down lilty folk a la ‘pure imagination’. ends as it starts. “i’m looking for someone to change my life.” this song is like the best joke ever if you know the original. dear god.
*10. soft pack -- fast happy punky riffy sunshiny highway pop. totally bounceable. “all right oh yeah.” 100% california.
11. mecromina -- heavy minor strings. downtempo, mournful, beautiful, heavy. really thick sound. like spiralling down. lyrics in spanish.
12. the silly pillows -- cute, playful echo-ey waltzer piano. instrumental. fades to reverb.

Track Listing
1. Electrocution (Bill Fox)   7. The Agony Of Laffitte (Spoon)
2. Enjoy The Silence (Depeche Mode)   8. Bye Bye Beaute (Coralie Clement)
3. Love Goes On (The Go-Betweens)   9. Question (Moody Blues)
4. Janine (Arthur Russell)   10. Bright Side (Soft Pack)
5. You Were So Warm (Dwight Twilley)   11. Evolucion (Mecromina)
6. Love And Anger (Kate Bush)   12. I Remembered What I Was Going To Say (The Silly Pillows)