Nada Surf returns with their anticipated new LP, Moon Mirror, on September 13, 2024 via New West Records. The 11-song set was produced by the band with Ian Laughton (Supergrass, Ash) and recorded at the legendary Rockfield Studios in Monmouthshire, Wales. Moon Mirror is Nada Surf’s first album in four years and marks the 30th anniversary of their debut single, “The Plan”/“Telescope.”
A thrilling and moving leap forward for the band, Moon Mirror is true to the human experience—as meaningful and mysterious and sometimes absurd as it is. These new songs thrum with love, grief, deep loneliness, doubt, wonder, and hope. There is hard-won wisdom and hard-won belief in possibility. It has everything fans love and expect from the band: play-on-repeat heart punches, poetic and thought-provoking musings on the world around them, and bittersweet anthems that begin quietly but explode into soaring harmonies.
Today, Paste Magazine shared the album highlight “Losing.” The song was written by their friend and longtime collaborator, Louie Lino, who says, “‘Losing’ was originally written during a particularly down day as a list of all the things getting older robs from you. Friends lost, loves lost, time lost, but mostly, possibilities and how that makes you feel. But Matthew’s hopeful bridge brings back some perspective.” Frontman Matthew Caws adds, “I love how the sadness of the frank stock-taking verses bursts and vanishes into ecstatic choruses, where disappearing is kind of glorious transcendence.”
The band previously released the video for the first single, “In Front of Me Now,” a heartfelt warning against sleepwalking through the one life we have. With “In Front of Me Now,” Nada Surf returned to a Billboard airplay chart for the first time in 28 years, debuting in the top 40 at AAA Radio. The band’s last radio chart appearance was their breakout hit “Popular,” from their debut album in 1996. They also recently released the video for the album highlight “New Propeller” which was directed by Mark Pellington (U2, Pearl Jam, The Mothman Prophecies) as well.
Caws says, “Every time we make an album, I’m asked (and ask myself) what it’s about. I never know how to answer that question. I’m still trying to figure everything out, and that’s probably as close to a theme as there is. Looking back over the years, I know what our songs are about in theory: trying to reach acceptance (of circumstances, of oneself, of others), connection, a constant search for possibility and the bright side, a willingness to change, forgiveness, curiosity, checking in with one’s mortality, motivations and judgements, etc. But in the moment when making one up, I have no idea what I’m doing and maybe that’s ok. I’m just trying to stay honest with myself and take my best guess at making sense of the world.”
Long hailed as a must-see live act, Nada Surf has announced the first legs of their 2024 Moon Mirror world tour. Launching on October 2 in Washington, DC, the US tour features an appearance at the When We Were Young Festival in Las Vegas, where they will perform their 2002 fan favorite Let Go in its entirety. Supporting the US dates will be their New West labelmates, the acclaimed New Zealand-based indie-rock band Office Dog. The European leg of the tour will launch on November 14 in Madrid. Please see tour dates, with more to be added, below.
Nada Surf formed in New York City in 1992 and released their debut single, “The Plan”/“Telescope” in 1994. They signed to Elektra Records and released their first full-length High/Low in 1996. Produced by Ric Ocasek of the Cars, High/Low was an instant hit based on the massive success of its lead single “Popular,” but the band truly hit its stride in the 2000s, starting with the release of 2002’s Let Go. Anthemic, catchy, yet emotionally knotty, that album won them new fans and greater acclaim, and they built on both with each subsequent release, including 2005’s melancholic The Weight Is a Gift and the bone-raw The Stars Are Indifferent to Astronomy. Rather than
summarize their celebrated career with a traditional greatest hits package, on 2016’s Peaceful Ghosts they recorded some of their most popular songs alongside the Deutsches Filmorchester Babelsberg, one of the only remaining film orchestras in Western Europe.
For most of the band’s thirty years, Nada Surf has had the same core lineup: Matthew Caws (vocals, guitar), Daniel Lorca (bass, vocals), and Ira Elliot (drums). On Moon Mirror, they are joined again by Louie Lino.
Nada Surf’s Moon Mirror will be available across digital platforms, on compact disc, and standard black vinyl. A limited 2-LP Moon Mirror (Reflection) – Deluxe Edition will be available on “Galaxy Splatter” color vinyl and features a bonus LP including 10 original demos for the album recorded by Matthew Caws. The Deluxe Edition will also be available as a limited 2-CD version as well. A limited Opaque Jade color vinyl edition including an orange flexi disc single featuring an exclusive, unreleased recording will be available via Rough Trade. A limited coke bottle clear color vinyl edition will be available via Independent Retailers worldwide. Moon Mirror is available for pre-order NOW via NEW WEST RECORDS.
Moon Mirror track listing:
- Second Skin
2. In Front of Me Now - Moon Mirror
- Losing
- Intel and Dreams
- The One You Want
- New Propeller
- Open Seas
- X Is You
- Give Me the Sun
- Floater
Nada Surf EU tour:
November 25 – Amsterdam, NL – Melkweg
November 26 – Brussels, BE – Botanique
