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Jul 29, 2022 Web Exclusive By Austin Saalman

It is only fitting that Maggie Rogers recently graduated from Harvard Divinity School, as her sophomore release has proven her the indisputable patron saint of millennial pop. Surrender, while functioning perfectly as a cohesive whole, consists of brief snapshots from Rogers’ life, the sort of intimate images one might hide within a dusty trunk or drawer, occasionally unearthing them to examine one’s own face, frozen in time, nostalgic and mystified. In many senses, it is the ultimate late-pandemic release, the very work predicted a year ago by the likes of Lorde’s Solar Power and, more recently, Charli XCX’s Crash, sent to offer an even clearer premonition of what post-pandemic music could sound like. Even without its thick cloak of imperative sociocultural relevance, however, Surrender stands among its decade’s finest pop releases. Maggie Rogers seems to have tuned into something greater than most, her unflinching drive to experiment and produce only what is true to her personal vision placing her output within an enviable category all its own.

Now a 28-year-old Ivy League graduate, Rogers is still grappling with the mainstream success of Heard It In a Past Life, her widely lauded major label debut, on which she emerged with a striking sound that launched her into the national spotlight as a promising force of undiluted alt pop bliss in the twilight of the 2010’s. Rogers’ resultant trials and tribulations are documented throughout Surrender, her often pleading vocals expertly paired with the meticulously produced post-pop beauty of the album’s sound, itself a fascinating synthesis of the rustic folk roots grown deeply during Rogers’ upbringing in rural Maryland and the postmodern buzz so prevalent throughout the Trump era, during which she came of age and cut her professional teeth.

Opening track “Overdrive” unveils exactly what Rogers has learned over the past three years, its multilayered bombast pulling the pristine visions of Heard It In a Past Life into the current decade, its exhilarating stomp and buzzing synthesizers carrying Rogers’ earnest insistence: “My love would you walk/For hours just to talk/‘Cause you did it better/When you were on my side.” Rogers rides high the golden tide of artistic glory here, co-producer Kid Harpoon helping to perfect the overwhelming aesthetic beauty of the cut’s soundscape. Arguably Surrender’s top track, “Overdrive” emits a bold power, strange and beguiling, with Rogers baring her soul to the listener. “You told me that I was all you could see,” she concludes. “But you kept me in/The dark.”

Subsequently, “That’s Where I Am” positions itself as one of the summer’s great alt pop anthems, its synthesized harmonies underscoring Rogers’ keen reflections: “Now when I wait in your doorway/Covered in flowers/I think of her/The woman that you once dated/I couldn’t relate to/Her glitter and furs,” the singer’s revelation as warm and textured as the music itself. Likewise, “Want Want,” another standout, finds Rogers—a synesthete—singing her truths in color, its tight melodies creating a multi-hued strobe effect, an otherworldly glow flashing across our faces, perceivable only through the strange aesthetic intuition now shared with Rogers on her journey across the track’s grinding synth waves. Elsewhere, “Anywhere With You” brims with burning passion, Rogers doing her damndest to compromise, singing: “You tell me you want everything, you want it fast/But all I’ve ever wanted is to make something/Fucking last,” while downtempo “Horses” returns to the ethereal bedroom wistfulness of her debut. Embodying the bittersweet point at which youthful longing, nostalgia, and regret intersect, “Horses” stands among Rogers’ most powerful songs, its opening verse—“Watch you go/Cross the street/Like a dream/Out my window/Sucking nicotine down my throat/Thinking of you giving head”—imparting a ghostly sense of adolescent pining, likely to embed itself within the listener’s conscience.

“Be Cool” is another lyrical triumph on Rogers’ part, with such lines as, “Needed the summer just to be a teenager/Drunk on the month of June” and “Caught myself thinking we could live forever/But maybe for just one night” revealing Rogers’ psychic harmony across the vast expanse of a poetic Heaven, while ’80s-inflected synth pop masterpiece “Shatter,” beneath its irresistible surface, finds Rogers giving one of the most ferocious vocal deliveries of her career. “Shatter” is a song of escape, the track playing on your stereo as you shift your first vehicle into drive and hit the road for parts unknown, your adolescence merely a skin soon to be shed. The slow burning “Honey” reflects upon the nature of fate, Rogers stating, “Oh I believe/I could’ve been your girl/For about a hundred years/Oh in another world/But I had to leave,” this line in particular remaining among her absolute finest. Elsewhere, minimalistic acoustic numbers “Begging for Rain” and “I’ve Got a Friend” counterbalance Surrender’s often arena-sized ambitions, transporting the listener to the very center of Rogers’ soul as she seeks salvation on the former and pays tribute both humorous and heartbreaking to a close friend on the latter.

“Different Kind of World,” Surrender’s contemplative closing track, feels like Roger’s personal “Forever Young,” albeit laced with more overtly political sentiments as she sings, “One last song/I’ll write a song/And know that it’s for you/That new friend/I haven’t met/With a different point of view.” Here, Rogers states her agenda, seeking, somehow, some semblance of peace within the gurgling cauldron of venomous bile that has been the late 2010s and early 2020s. On Surrender, she once more explores the possibility of other lives, things we cannot quite recall, but take comfort in the possibility of having occurred. For the weary listener, caught within a bleak pop cultural slump and eager for a bit of enchantment, Rogers’ sentiments are most welcome.

At the end of it all, Surrender is a damn-near perfect album. A triumph for both Rogers and her listeners. It is among the most educated and insightful works to come from any pop artist in recent years, and, despite being early on in the decade, will surely serve as a high watermark for pop music in the ’20s. Rogers’ songwriting abilities seem somehow supernatural, the honesty of her lyrics a welcome relief in the age of irony. A higher bar has been set by Surrender, and one suspects that the effort will beget a slew of recordings inspired by its richly idiosyncratic sound—an invigorating and necessary innovation in marvelous alt pop. With Surrender, Rogers has refused to do just that, defying the pull of monotony and cliché, crafting instead her masterpiece. (www.maggierogers.com)

Author rating: 8.5/10