Friday, June 18, 2010

Break the Silence

In a break from my norm, one of my favorite albums of the year so far is Nada Surf's If I Had a Hi-Fi.

It's not that I don't like Nada Surf - I do, very much. It's that Hi-Fi is an album of covers, which I'm typically indifferent toward. But Nada Surf owns every cover as if it was their own composition so the entire album seems less like a mix-tape than most cover albums. The song selection is unmatched in balancing the well-known (Enjoy the Silence, Question) with the lesser-known (Electrocution, Evolution). This balance is tricky, but the flow of the first five songs alone justifies the entire album's existence.

To me, Depeche Mode's Enjoy the Silence is the most recognizable tune, but if you had never heard it before you'd swear it was a Nada Surf tune. Their handling of the classic reanimates it to fit in nicely with the band's oeuvre - quite an achievement.

I picked it up a while back during Record Store Day, but they just widely released it earlier this month. Get it and reminisce about old favorite tunes while listening to them through an accomplished Nada Surf filter.

iTunes
Amazon.com MP3

Download the Electrocution MP3 free! Find the link here.

2 comments:

matt said...

This is indeed, very solid. I like covers albums, but I've reached my limit (sort of), so it really takes a unique album to turn my head, and the Nada Surf disc definitely accomplished that. The track listing didn't blow me away, but the key (as you mentioned) really is their ability to own a cover - something that I heard for the first time with their cover of "Ooh La La" by the Faces on a radio broadcast.

The cover of "Question" is GREAT...and I love "Electrocution."

Anonymous said...

Wow. Enjoy The Silence is f*cking incredible!