Power-pop at its best.
Seattle's Super Deluxe is not a prolific band; Surrender is only their third LP in ten years. In this case, however, it matters not. Solid guitars, melodic hooks, appealing vocals, interesting lyrics: Super Deluxe is a band that shows on Surrender that it knows exactly what it is doing. The indisputable highlight is album-opener 'Come Down', which is stunningly pretty. Instrumentation slowly building throughout a graceful introduction; an absolutely lovely melody, with chord-progressions that use F major in all of the best ways, resulting in sincere but down-to-earth sweetness; simple but poignant words of reunification, forgiveness, and love. Other strong points include 'Upside-Down', also memorably melodic, in which a detached, almost amused narrator explores feeling very confused. NOTE: 'Shoot' and 'Upside-Down' were accidentally mislabelled as one another on the physical CD, and eMusic's listings retain the error. Track #4 is 'Upside-Down', and #5 is 'Shoot'.
