album review: The Weight is a Gift

When I decided several months ago to turn my collection of downloaded albums into a physical one - a binder of hand-decorated CD-Rs - the first step was to decide which records were worthy. While going through the selection process, I realized some bands produce songs that stand strongly on their own, yet are supported by a lackluster album. At the very least, I acknowledge certain bands only for particular songs, with the record they're on being an example of a whole being less than the sum of its parts. Nada Surf's The Weight is a Gift is not an example of such an album. While there are highlights ("Do It Again", "Blankest Year" and "In The Mirror" in my opinion), this is an album that asserts itself as a complete work; one of my absolute favorites. In this case, the non-essential songs serve to emphasize the highlights, while still standing capably on their own.

When this album was first released I was living in Ann Arbor and working as a cashier at Hiller's Market. New cashiers had to start on the late shift, and we stayed open until 11:00 pm every day except Sunday. After nine there were often periods with nothing to do and, even when conversing with customers about their grocery buys or perfecting my bagging skills, I enjoyed having a soundtrack in the form of internet radio. Through November and December all we heard was Christmas songs. Most of the other cashiers were annoyed, but I've always openly enjoyed holiday music. Deck the halls! 'Tis the season! Giddy-up jingle-horse! Other times of the year, we listened to a lot of eighties and nineties alternative pop. I would recognize familiar favorites by The Cure, The Clash and The Cars, but we would also hear great sixties and seventies hits like "Bus Stop", "Ballroom Blitz", "Escape (The Piña Colada song)" and "Runaway". I was never able to nail down a specific theme, and it's more than likely that we were listening to several stations and they were merging in my mind. On occasion I would hear contemporary indie rock hits like Death Cab For Cutie, Rilo Kiley and, as the most obscure example of something I was keen on, Nada Surf's "What Is Your Secret?" When the radio was on that particular station, I would hear this song three or four times a day, if I was working an eight-hour weekend shift. I had just downloaded the album before hearing it at work, yet I instantly recognized the track. In my head, we were tuned to college radio and some DJ on the University of Michigan campus was unknowingly doing me a favor. Even six months later, shortly before I left the store, I would still hear the song now and then.

There is certainly a mindset; an emotion; empowering and sentimental that courses through the veins of this album. The lyrics are some of the most memorable of any I've ever heard, alongside the hip poetry of Matthew Hart as The Russian Futurists or the philosophical storytelling of The Dismemberment Plan.

The opening track is a call to action for the nervous, the unmotivated and the lonely. "To find someone you love / you've gotta be someone you love." It is followed by what has, through hard times, become one of my all-time favorite songs, the seemingly intended highlight of the album (as it contains the titular lyric), "Do It Again". While the bridge is an admission of defeat and a call for help: "I spend all my energy staying upright", the theme of the album and it's quintessential lyric is a mantra of growth; an acceptance and appreciation of learning from mistakes and never regretting the past:

"Maybe this weight was a gift
like I had to see what I could lift"

That is a line that I have countlessly repeated to myself after life-altering moments, and proof to me that while trying to adapt lyrics to your situation can be foolish, sometimes it is exactly the purpose for which they were intended. The song "Always Love" reminds us that "hate will get you every time". "Your Legs Grow" croons: "call me anytime you've got a ghost / you're the only person in the world I feel that way about". Any time I host a party or am in charge of music, I begin my set with the song "Blankest Year", and it's memorable statements:

"Oh, fuck it, I'm gonna have a party

I had the blankest year
I saw life turn into a TV show
it was totally weird
the person I knew I didn't really know"

Perhaps the best ever Star Wars reference in a song can be found on "In The Mirror", a track that has become a staple for when I'm making mixtapes. This song reprises the theme of searching for confidence and faith in our own personalities.

"I look in the mirror to see what my hair is doing
is it kinda Skywalker, or is it kinda stupid?
but that's not the real reason I'm looking
I need a reminder of what I'm doing
I need a reminder that I'm human"

This album does not try for anything groundbreaking, and it doesn't need to. It's solidity is the kind of thing every record collection should include. We all have our different stand-bys when it comes to dependable music. The Weight is a Gift is one of mine.