Surrogate Love Is For The Rich
Genre: Indie Alternative
Stand Out Tracks: 15, Easy
Record Label: Tooth & Nail
By BMcMahon
There’s a part of folk music that drives listeners away. While this style bellows compelling simplistic foundations for some, this underappreciated sense for the non-syndicated music genre is found underlying in many forms of music. Few groups can make this as likeable as it seems odd to fall into, especially for an alternative/indie lover, but in this case Surrogate has done just so.
Dwelling from the West, where pure, good music seems to sit calmly, and appease without appearing too overbearing, Surrogate exposes their passionate lyrics with the percussions of Jordan Mallory and the talents of multi-instrumentalist and lead vocalist, Chris Keene (guitar, bass, piano, keyboard, accordion, banjo, xylophone, percussion and programming). Delicately trimming the fat from minimalist indie-pop styles, Surrogate's approach gently persuades a light, folksy attitude; a style that gravitates outside the folk genre and tidally ebbs onto the alternative plateau. The result: an unfounded musical approach enough to gam your gullet.
At first glimpse, Surrogate appears flimsy, with their opening track, “Shift The Blame”, but this song laminates the album in a most fitting way. With the acoustic song-in-a-garage effect they've dreamily laid down, the effect manages to bring out their strengths in not only relying in their songwriting skills, but also the passion in the vocals sung by Keene. Barroom piano accompanies a nurturing guitar and a setting is laid for the album. But the precedent from “Shift The Blame” is not followed, rather shown up and completely reversed by the subsequent track, “15”. With a poppiness enough to calibrate the album back into an unabashed indie-pop album, “15” proves flavorful enough to keep going back to.
Concurrent with the vocals throughout the album lay the bits and pieces of folk practically hidden at each turn. "Talk of the Weather" provides a clean banjo entrance to the track, while “Death Penalty” begins with the trembling piano that kicked-off the album. Peeling off the alt-country skin to the well-versed lyrics Keene sings, "It doesn't matter now, cause' I have seen the future, its amazing; we will fall to our knees."
Songs such as “Easy” expose Keene’s vocal abilities as wavering, unsure or tepid in song style, yet controlled on the high notes, and withering on the low ones. This doesn’t affect the album in too much of a negative fashion, but pushes the album more into the direction of indie-rock, where many songwriters' natural vocals cannot support their creative writing talents, although this is not the case here. Keene’s vocals capture his emotions fittingly, while leaving room for improvement, which entitles him to such a unique set of vocal talent incomparable to any mainstream music. The blemishes in this case, instead of devaluing the music, rather add to the value like a fossil to a stone.
