To Make a Mountain of Your Life Is Just a Choice

I worked in radio in the 90s and one of the most distressing things about my jobs was to strip any particular song's appeal to its least common denominator to try to determine whether it would help boost ratings. I'm going somewhere with this. In the 90s, all too often this meant listening for a catchy novelty tune. Think PUSA. Their whole career has been one novelty after another. Hang on, almost there. Every so often, though, a band will transcend that unfortunate initiation to the masses to become so much more. Think Flaming Lips. They could have been that band I heard in college with that song about using jelly and vaseline or something. And here we go...

Which brings me to Nada Surf. True, all too many still only know this band for the gimmicky Popular. But a couple years ago, they released a great album of pop, Let Go. Great album. Then, they go ahead and one-up themselves to create a nearly perfect pop album, The Weight Is a Gift. Imagine my surprise when I picked this up when it was on sale at Target (embarrassingly, it wasn't even on my radar really) and then I listen to it to discover it's the epitome of a Too Poppy album. Virtually every song is one of those songs that even though you've never heard it before, you end up singing it halfway through because you can't resist. By the second time around, the album feels like an old favorite. Honestly, I come across albums that make me feel this way maybe a few times a year at the most. Perhaps you'll have a similar experience with it.

Check out a couple tunes at their MySpace site. Always Love is my new favorite song.