Reader’s Choice/Tom’s Top Tunes…Song #73/250: Always Love by Nada Surf.

As I type these words today, Spring is slowly returning to my piece of the world. Our tulips are just beginning to stretch up and out of the soil as they reach for the sun. The ground is becoming softer and squishier as winter releases its cold iron grip. Buds are appearing like pearls on the branches of our trees. The days are sunnier and warmer. Renewal is underway. In the natural world, life seems ever hopeful.

As much as we all live in the natural world, we also live in a world filled with artificially created human constructs. In that world of finances, politics, information media, consumerism and fear, it is not as easy to feel optimistic about the current state of the world’s affairs and the future that awaits us all. It doesn’t seem like it was all that long ago that a term such as doom scrolling didn’t exist. There was no need for it. But as many of us are discovering, to the detriment of our mental health, it is becoming increasingly difficult to navigate our way through our social media feeds. Where once our timelines were filled with the comings and goings of those we loved, now they are filled with alarmist posts about lost rights, rising prices, state sanctioned cruelty towards ordinary people and the taunting laughter of those presently occupying the seats of power in our world. There are now many days when I cannot even find any posts from those I love. There are no birthday party photo shoots. No anniversary dinners. No sporting triumphs. Those posts have become swept away in a tsunami of misery-laden proclamations about how bad our world has become and how much worse it shall surely be. It is almost as if the information gatekeepers want there to seem as if there is no hope at all for a brighter tomorrow. No hope at all.

But there is always hope. 

There has to be.

Today’s song is called “Always Love” by a band named Nada Surf. This band formed in the 1990s in New York. A chance meeting with Ric Ocasek of The Cars resulted in an offer from him to produce their debut album called High/Low.  From this album came one of the songs of the summer in 1996 called “Popular”. *(I wrote a previous post about “Popular” which you can read here.)  The sudden success of “Popular”, the professional recording of their first album, the signing of a record contract and all that comes with instant fame caused the members of Nada Surf to feel uneasy about their music careers. It is easy in such circumstances to feel as if things are spiraling out of control from an artistic sense. The members of Nada Surf (Matthew Caws, Daniel Lorca and Ira Elliot felt pressured to instantly release more songs like “Popular” and keep churning out the hits. Eventually the band rebelled. Their record contract was terminated. They then began touring and recording new songs on their own terms as, perhaps, befits a group of young musicians just learning their craft and exploring their world. A decade or so later, they released an album called The Weight is a Gift.  On that album was arguably their most radio-friendly song since “Popular”. That song was called “Always Love”. In a music scene that embraces straight-ahead guitar driven rock n’ roll, Nada Surf had returned to the limelight with a song about the only thing that matters…love. It has always been easy to champion a song that promotes the concept of love trumping the idea of hate. But never has its message found more fertile ground than it has today. In our ever darkening world, audiences are warming to Nada Surf’s positivity the same way my tulips are turning to follow the sun each warmer day of Spring. In many ways, the career of Nada Surf is turning full circle. After exploding out of the gate as a new band many decades ago, Nada Surf spent the majority of their career relentlessly touring the world quietly on their own terms. But now, thanks to the state of our world, many people have rediscovered them and are flocking to their live shows. And at those shows, the song “Always Love” is always welcomed enthusiastically by those in attendance. It seems as though in these times we could all use a little reassurance that the things that really matter to us all actually still matter, even if we are not seeing that reflected in our social media feeds or in news reports. 

Love still matters. It matters more than hate. It matters more than money. It matters more than power. There is nothing vainglorious about caring for others beyond yourself. Being kind-hearted is something to strive for. Being a good friend and neighbour still counts for something. As cliche as it sounds, honesty remains the best policy. And nothing is more important than love. 

There are certain uncomfortable realities about how the world around us is increasingly operating. We ignore those realities at our peril. Being prepared and knowledgeable is always a good thing when it comes to protecting ourselves and the ones we love. But never allow those currently calling the shots to take away your sense of hope for a better tomorrow. Your moral compass will guide you to brighter days if you continue to follow your own form of north star which is to believe in the power of love. There is always love. There is always hope. Just as the earth awakens and blossoms in the warmth of the sunshine, better days remain. Always love, folks. Always love.

The link to the official video for the song “Always Love” by Nada Surf can be found here. ***The lyrics version is here. The link to a live version (with a great audience sing-along from Montreal) can be found here.

The link to the official website for the band Nada Surf can be found here.

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