Maggie Rogers - Surrender

Indie Rock/Pop – Released July 29, 2022 – 12 songs, 46 mins

LUNDI

On a recent road trip a friend pointed out to me that every album I chose to listen to was by a female singer songwriter or a female led indie rock band. Today on TSR we get the indie rock inspired album Surrender by singer songwriter Maggie Rogers… and well, Surprise! I absolutely love it. 

Surrender immediately grabs your attention and is memorable from the very first listen.  Maggie’s vocals and newly found experimental instrumentation jump out at you from the get go while her darkened yet witty lyrics are a continuous gift that you get to unpack with each spin. TSR summer vacations resulted in this album sticking around on the review docket longer than most but even with over double the normal listens, Surrender didn’t lose a single ounce of momentum. It packs the staying power that can be void in traditional pop music as its fueled by many elements across numerous other genres that make mainstream music so damn great. 

Coming off the acclaimed debut album Heard It In A Past Life that earned Maggie a Grammy nomination for Best New Artist no one in the music industry would have blamed her for sticking to that mould, but alas this is the girl that once turned down Pharrell so it also shouldn’t shock that Surrender is a brand new direction. The album bares its sharp teeth and feels deeply real and relatable. Maggie’s vocal range explores new heights as she matches the presence of the uber talented Florence Welsch on the 80’s funk rock standout track Shatter and soars on the stadium rock like anthem Anywhere With You. It’s a noticeable improvement from her debut that suddenly becomes her biggest strength on Surrender. 

Maggie also makes it known early that she is no longer acoustic driven contemporary ballads or bubblegum pop. Surrender is her foray into indie rock as the album is filled with electric guitars, synths, and drum kits beaming from the sound system. We’re dealing with a fierce artist and newly acclaimed producer who wants bigger and better. She shows off her wide array of skills making it clear that Surrender is a deeply personal album to Maggie where she feels she can take on anything and everything. She’s having fun and on a mission to be the very damn best. With talent in spades it feels like only a matter of time. 

To nitpick Rogers’ sophomore effort would be a crime as her growing pains as a young artist result in minor flaws that are easily forgivable but the glaring inclusion of I’ve Got A Friend is simply not justifiable and must be pointed out. The song feels so very out of place on this album. Every time it plays I can’t help but be transformed back to the late 90’s as I sit on the carpet floor of my parents living room while a Toy Story VHS plays and Randy Newman sings You’ve Got a Friend In Me. The campfire feeling song isn’t necessarily that bad and by all means pump the tires of your friends any time you can, but the track just does not belong on Surrender. Damn Maggie, so close to pop perfection.

Surrender is an excellent indie rock album that doubles as a nearly flawless pop record. Musically invigorating and lyrically stimulating. Maggie crushes all expectations. 

Overall Rating: 8.6/10

Favourite Song: Shatter

REID

Despite never listening to her music, the name Maggie Rogers has popped up often in the last year. Initially she was on the ‘potential’ list heading into Coachella. We had all heard good things but she was scheduled the same time as Fred again… on Sunday so the introduction was pushed. Luckily her sophomore album, Surrender, was in the pipeline and TSR set our sights on it. Between now and then, her single, That’s Where I Am, scored high praise from yours truly on episode 8 of the podcast, further raising the hype of this review. Let’s dive into it.

Very early on, it was easy to conclude the true beauty and selling point of Maggie Rogers is her relatability. She gives you ‘girl next door’ vibes who is influenced by no one and true to herself. The last review we did had an album cover of a woman majestically posing on a horse. Maggie’s is a less-than-flattering headshot in black and white. She’s not some flashy, look at me pop star. She wants to get there her own way. This translates directly to her music and it makes you want to root for her. Almost every song on Surrender tells a story one can relate to. That’s Where I Am describes a relationship that has had its ups and downs but the couple manage to get past them and make it work. She sings on handling her desires and their repercussions on Want Want, giving a glimpse into her insecurities with lyrics like ‘…As I watch you get undressed, Pray to God this won’t be a mess’. On Anywhere With You, she’s content to pack her life into bags and search for something more as long as her lover is with her. A very relative COVID sentiment. Horses is an incredible ballad where she questions the world and if her love would be requited. Be Cool is a fun, summer jam and Symphony is an intimate love song. Those are just a few of my favourites. There really is something there for everyone.

Great stories and messages are one thing. How they’re delivered is another. That’s where Maggie shines. Surrender feels exactly like what it is, a self-produced record. Everything about it makes it feel like it’s her own. The music isn’t awe-inspiring but it’s clever and adventurous. It’s primarily synth-infused indie rock with a few acoustic ballads mixed in. It’s exactly what it needs to be to accentuate the focal point, her voice. My mind keeps going back to this one word – believable. The passion in her music shines through song in and song out and it all feels very real. This is perfectly captured by I’ve Got A Friend. The song is comparable to a maid of honor speech. Maggie creates laughter with an inside joke on masturbation, brings a tear on tough times like living through a mother’s death and closes the loop with a smile on a friendship that will last forever – all in one verse! Take a minute to think of your relationships with your best friends and I’m sure you can relate – that’s the best part.

‘Wake up Maggie, I think you’ve got something to say to me. I’ve given your sophomore album a score of eight point three!’ Maggie’s ability to make a connection to her listeners with passionate, relatable songs is the standout feature on Surrender.

Overall Rating – 8.3/10

Favourite Song - Horses

ROZ

While this event through TSR’s focal lens is practically done to death at this point, this story undoubtedly sets the stage for this week’s review.

It was earlier this year, during the lead up to Too Sweet Reviews’ 2022 Coachella trip. The boys were firing artist names back and forth - as we usually do before a trip - listing off the ones that we want to see, along with what acts to avoid at all costs. Over the weeks we would shuffle through the deck, trying our hand with each new artist that we could potentially fit into an already jam-packed weekend schedule. For an event as grandiose as this one (and with a billing so stacked that even a surprise birthday set from Arcade Fire would make us sweat), Maggie Rogers’ name cut through the noise. I flicked through her top Spotify releases, and admittedly I wasn’t overly impressed. With a thumbs up from one TSR member and a ho-hum from the other, Ms. Rogers ended up getting skipped that weekend. Was this the right decision? Well, let’s dive into Surrender and find out.

2016 graduate of New York University with an undergraduate in music engineering and production. 2021 graduate of Harvard University that she passed with distinctions. There is no question that Maggie Rogers is a student of the game and has the perfect pedigree to match. With a folk sound compounded with a blend of electronic music (an influence attributed to her time in Europe checking out the Berlin dance music scene), Surrender’s signature sound is made known instantly throughout the soft-warm swells of an analog (or digital derivative) synthesizer tucked under plucking guitar melodies and a soothing vocal effort in the albums first track, Overdrive.

This signature sound is one of two, with the second being a stripped down, more acoustic strategy in tracks such as Horses, I’ve Got a Friend and Different Kind of World. Tracks That’s Where I Am and Shatter stand out from the rest, with the former implementing unique vocal effects as its own independent instrument and the latter combining pulsing square-wave synths with a fantastic chorus and a plethora of background ear candy. Kid Harpoon, or Thomas Hull, is Maggie’s co-writer and producer on Surrender and his highly decorated background as a songwriter-producer (Harry Styles, Shawn Mendes, Shakira, Florence + the Machine) is highlighted throughout. Ms. Welch herself even shows up to provide additional vocal work and tambourine; a nice rub from a powerhouse in the game.

The problem with Surrender is that in the bigger picture, with such a shockwave of interesting music coming out in 2022, Surrender fails to reverberate further than a few pleasant listens. COVID themed songs (Be Cool, Different Kind of World) have gotten old, and Maggie’s flip flopping from sad to happy untethers any sort of underlying theme that could become present throughout. While Maggie’s own performance has its moments, I found myself having trouble connecting to the emotion in her voice (and her singing voice in general) or the substance in her words. Surrender is a solid, middle of the pile, indie rock experience. Nothing less, nothing more.

Overall Rating: 7.0/10

Favourite Song: That’s Where I Am