Maggie Rogers’ Surrender Is Sonic Liberation
Maggie Rogers starts her second studio album, Surrender, with her title single That’s Where I Am.
Inspired by the classic 90s rom-com 10 Things I Hate About You, the song shows Roger is not afraid to pull from her academic roots.
The album’s ethos is an ode to surrendering, a concept that can carry negative connotations. Rogers aims to reframe that narrative throughout the album.
Surrender begs us to surrender to the overwhelming love that makes you “feel it in your teeth” and is “too good to resist,” like she says in her second single, Want Want.
The theme of excess and giving in to your feelings is present on the entire album, which was released July 29.
On Overdrive, Rogers asks her lover to live for love by asking, “My love, would you walk/for hours just to talk?” This idea is explored further in Horses when Rogers asks her lover to surrender to attain freedom.
Sonically, the album’s first half hearkens back to the angst of Roger’s teen rom-coms. The distinctive cry in her voice when belting out notes makes it feel like she’s holding her emotions in.
The instrumentals complement her atmosphere through muffled electric guitars, hard-hitting drums and grungy synths that sound like the polished sounds of the new millennium.
Surrender’s second half reverses the atmosphere. We are no longer in the passionate love story of a teenage rom-com. Instead, we have reached the movie’s final scenes, where the sad yet hopeful sounds pull your heartstrings.
The production also feels stripped back. It retains a cohesive soundscape by using the same instruments and sounds. However, they’ve now taken a step into Roger’s more intimate voice.
Despite the lighthearted instrumentation, the lyrics hit on the dark side of being sensitive. She
seems more distanced from the confidence displayed at the start of the album. On Symphony, Rogers reflects on “times when she can be a lot to handle.”
On the album’s closing track, Different Kind of World, Rogers dreams of a reality in which everyone surrenders to emotion.
Surrender showcases the power of feeling the pain, joy, and everything in between that life offers through an exceptional delivery of crafted pop hooks and nostalgic sounds reminiscent of the 2000s.
