Nada Surf STARS ARE INDIFFERENT TO ASTRONOMY

Nada Surf STARS ARE INDIFFERENT TO ASTRONOMYNada Surf celebrate their 20th anniversary with The Stars Are Indifferent to Astronomy, the band's seventh studio album and first collection of original material since 2008's Lucky. "Every birthday candle that ever got blown out is one more year of someone trying to figure it all out," Matthew Caws sings in "Looking Through," a song about aging gracefully and holding onto one's youth. Most of the other tunes follow suit; "No Snow on the Mountain"

especially on the mutated R&B tracks like "10 d E A T h b R E a s T

or any of life's basic staples

BACK TO BLACK's production is an artful blend of sophisticated '60s R&B and 21st-century stylistic poaching

it makes for what is perhaps the album's best performance

" This vinyl reissue is mastered at half-speed and cut by Miles Showell at Abbey Road Studios

and often characterized by clever wordplay

SPLEEN AND IDEAL is a profoundly different sounding record than its self-titled predecessor

from the very first line

and soul that have lurked around the margins of her music since the beginning and made up the heart of The Greatest

Lindsey Buckingham rips through the late-period hit "Big Love" unaccompanied

When they married that distinctive style to some of their strongest songs on 2009's Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix

though "Chosen" might give anyone who doesn't worship at the altar of Phil Collins some seriously queasy feelings