If you were so inclined or are naturally one of those people who needs everything in neat generic packages I guess you would drop The Nadas into the alt-rock pigeon-hole…or the pop-rock one…or perhaps alt-country…roots? It just shows you the limitations of genres, especially when it comes to bands like this, ones who neatly genre-splice classic sounds into new, original music. Okay, lets forget the labels, they are not needed here, the music sells itself, let’s all calm down and start again.
One Louder is one of those albums which comes at you like a career spanning retrospective when it is in fact just another regular album release, albeit their eleventh so it is clear that they have more than got their act together. So good is this collection that if you told me that it was the “Best Of” …not “Greatest Hits” as that implies rampant commerciality and this is better than that…from a long lost iconic country rock band at a time before we needed alt-this and post-that to explain our music, I wouldn’t bat an eyelid. All killer no filler as they say…do they still say that? Okay, forget that but you know what I’m saying.
Musically they wander from the sumptuous harmonies of slow-burners like Another Verse and the late night, hazy waltz of I’m Only to the infectious country-pop of Rita’s Hook and the indie rock groove of Best Weekend. But it is hard to sum things up just by the bands dynamic scope. You have to take into account, the deftness of the writing and the fact that whilst they wander between roots and rock, pop and indie, they still produce a wonderfully cohesive sound, one which no matter which genre they are pursuing, which time signature they are playing in or how hard their foot is on the pedal, always sounds like The Nada’s.
Boston might have cornered the market in indie guitar bands, Nashville in roots and rhinestones, the West Coast has its hazy signatures and Austin its cosmic country, but if you have eclectic music tastes thats a lot of travelling, better that you just head along to a Nadas gig, they seem to have it covered…and then some.
