Everybody remembers 'Popular,' the deadpan spoken-word single that made Nada Surf briefly unavoidable in 1996. The rest of High/Low deserves the same attention: Ric Ocasek produced it, and you can hear his fingerprints in the clean guitar edges and the way the hooks land square. Matthew Caws was already writing the melodies that would carry the band for the next thirty years, just louder and more anxious here. This Rhino Reserve pressing was cut at Take Out Vinyl. Street date: October 23.