Lucky charms

Twelve years after the breakthrough success of its single "Popular," and 10 years after difficulties with Elektra Records cast it out of the mainstream, Nada Surf continues to crank out surprisingly strong albums for a band once dismissed as "one-hit-wonders." Following 2002's Let Go and 2005's The Weight Is A Gift, the band's latest release Lucky marks a trifecta of, perhaps unspectacular, but certainly solid and enjoyable power pop.\nEver since its move to Barsuk Records, former home to one of this decade's major indie crossover successes Death Cab For Cutie, Nada Surf has repeatedly found itself compared to its ex-labelmates. Fortunately, this comparison reflects favorably on the Surf gang. While both bands produce bittersweet, largely mid-tempo rock with sensitive-guy vocals, Nada Surf injects a bit more sunlight into the gloom surrounding its sound. Compared to the near-uniformity that often plagues Death Cab's albums, Nada Surf provides more variety, interspersing soaring electric-rock anthems such as "Whose Authority" and "Weightless," for example, with the folky, acoustic number "Here Goes Something" and the slow-dance "Are You Lightning?" \nFurthermore, Nada Surf goes beyond navel-gazing depression to offer a bit of transcendent optimism. Introductory track "See These Bones," for instance, may concern how we're all going to die someday, but it employs this toward the end of showing how our daily problems and quarrels don't really matter.\nOr take "Beautiful Beat," where the narrator is an awful mess ("sometimes all I want is another drink or another pill / if I could get anything done, maybe I'd hold still"). Nevertheless, he believes in the healing power of music and its potential to save him.\nHere at the end of the naughts, what Nada Surf has to offer is hardly revolutionary. Besides the aforementioned Death Cab, many listeners will find that Brendan Benson, Ben Lee, The Shins or (my personal favorite) Devin Davis could easily scratch the same itch. But until the authorities start putting Prozac in our water, occasional sadness will sustain a high demand for music that can provide relief -- and, better than many others, Nada Surf does just that.