On the surface, Maggie Rogers embodies everything I loathe about modern female Pop. She's a progressive poster child who stumps for the Democratic Party, cites feminist theory like scripture and serenades a liberal middle class audience hellbent on transforming America into a political monoculture. This dissonance between her girl-next-door image on album with her high-class call girl Gala appearances also cannot be ignored. My inner Carl Schmitt demands the friend/enemy distinction, but I sheath my sword for her. Beneath the activism lies something rarer than ideological alignment: raw humanity.
Surrender sounds like a private journal blasted through stadium-sized hooks. Energetic and upbeat songs like "Shatter", "Want Want" and "Overdrive" hit with fuzzed adrenaline while "Be Cool" exhales into groove-cooled calm. Other songs like "Anywhere With You" and "Begging for Rain" drip with melancholy without being maudlin. Nothing stagnates; even the quiet tracks stay in motion.
Maggie's resonant purity inspires building futures or collapsing into into the arms of someone who loves you after a brutal day. All told, it may be the most unapologetically human album ever to breach Pop radio.
https://youtu.be/gigJjgPThYA
https://youtu.be/WdrNXRdkuG4
https://youtu.be/SylF32J2g8k
https://youtu.be/gWjr_r5vJzA
