Nada Surf - IfIhadahifi

I always kind of liked Nada Surf, and I'm pretty sure one of my old bands played with them at Brownies back in the Popular days. Either way, I really hated that tune and its MTV ubiqity, but fell for Lucky when I reviewed it at Burning Angel. They had embraced a sort of NYC Big Star vibe I never though they had in them and consequently they saw a lot of late night play on the JS-NYC house system. Coming late to the Nada party meant that I have never really seen them live and in person, as they are playing the big rooms locally. What I have seen seems pretty decent, but it would appear I'm going to have to wait a bit longer, as the ominous 'influences and covers' record has come on the radar ifihadahifi isn't bad by a long shot, but it does beg the question why these records exist in the first place. They seem to have supplanted live records in this day as the contract fulfiller for bands on the move. I have no firsthand knowledge that this is the case in this instance, but I'll reserve the right to say I told you so down the line. You get a dozen covers for your consumer dollar here. None are particularly well known, save for the Depeche Mode cover (of Enjoy The Silence) and perhaps the short stab at the Moody Blues chestnut Question. The MB never did anything for me, and the Nada Surf nod does little except remind me that DP ripped off Joy Division pretty hard. The Spoon cover suffers the same fate, but the Dwight Twilley number was a pleasant surprise. All in all, ifihadahifi is a decent record and perhaps a harbinger of future encore material, but nothing that is going to set the world on fire. It is, however, better than anything by Monsters Of Folk, so shop accordingly.

R