After years of harping on life’s misfortunes and trying to find silver linings within them, Nada Surf front man Matthew Caws may finally be onto something. After a trip to Rome were he witnessed the unearthing of bones belonging to thousands of Capuchin monks, Caws feels glad just to be alive. He feels it’s lucky that any of us are breathing at all, and titled the band’s fifth studio album Lucky to drive home the point.

Released in February, the record includes more of the power pop that the trio has become known for with a little less power and an increased level of musical maturity. The toned down approach won’t win over many new listeners, but there’s enough of the same-old to please fans. The band’s compositional growth hasn’t hurt either. Nada Surf experiments with the organ, piano, even the trumpet and Bavarian horn, but their most effective complement is the cello. The increasingly trendy instrument is used best in “Beautiful Beat,” creating a sweeping elegance that personifies the track’s message of music as a source of healing.

“Beautiful beat get me out of this mess/beautiful beat lift me up from distress,” sings Caws in his seemingly ageless and subdued voice. Death Cab for Cutie’s Ben Gibbard and Long Winters’ John Roderick, each with soft voices reminiscent of Caws’, lend their voices to the album as well. “The Fox,” arguably the album’s best track, includes a layering of pulsating electric guitar and plucking acoustic guitar, highlighted by an aggressive cello line in the song’s conclusion. It is the album’s moodiest song, and it comes closest to recapturing the melancholy sound of the band’s past. The opening track, “See These Bones,” makes an immediate impression as well. The song’s inspiration comes from an inscription Caws read while inside the crypt of the Capuchin monks in Rome. Caws quotes the inscription, singing “what you are now/we were once,” and adds “but just like we are/you’ll be dust.” The song is grim and inspiring all at once, reminding the listener to live every day like it’s their last.