Anberlin - 'New Surrender' Review

Anberlin jumped to a major label for their new album, New Surrender, after releasing three records on the punk-pop Tooth & Nail Records. In keeping with that move to the mainstream, Anberlin have enhanced their sound and expanded their musical palette, creating an album that’s the most accessible and tuneful of their career. New Surrender may lack the rough edges of earlier Anberlin efforts, but its sleek musicianship and heartfelt songs are significant compensation.

Because the Florida quintet traffic in emotional rock songs, they’ll forever be pegged with the dreaded emo label. But while there’s a case to be made against the self-indulgent whining of callow pretty boys, Anberlin frontman Stephen Christian is a good example of a thoughtful singer who emotes without getting sappy. On a song like “Breathe,” which deals with a man looking for a second chance, Christian sings sweetly without seeming mushy or coming across as a drama queen. There’s an inherently likable quality to Christian’s voice – expressive without being overly polished – and it makes his approach to issues like teenage memories and complicated romantic relationships intensely relatable.

Of course, a likeable singer wouldn’t mean much without dynamic music to back him, and New Surrender is by far the most stirring set of songs Anberlin have come up with. Charges of sell-out are inevitable when bands make the leap from independent labels to the big leagues, but New Surrender demonstrates how thinking bigger can be better. Produced by Neal Avron, who has worked with Fall Out Boy, New Surrender squeezes every hook for its maximum impact – string sections buttress emphatic choruses, and guitars and keyboards shine in the mix. As a result, the best songs hit you on two levels simultaneously – lyrically and sonically. The light, catchy “Younglife” captures the song’s nostalgic sentiment for the innocence of youth through the acoustic guitar and bouncy drums that drive the track. Likewise, “Retrace” encapsulates the difficulty of letting go of an ex thanks to the song’s anxious keyboards and plaintive guitars. Rather than being simplistic, New Surrender’s best tunes have a simplicity that makes them emotionally direct.

Anberlin have been connected to the Christian rock scene, and consequently there’s always a tendency on journalists’ part to interpret the band’s songs in that context. With that said, very little on New Surrender overtly references religion, except the final track, “Miserabile Visu (Ex Malo Bonum).” A grand keyboard ballad in the vein of Coldplay, “Miserabile Visu” imagines an apocalyptic scenario that’s equal parts dreamy and unsettling. If anyone else wrote “Miserabile Visu,” it would simply be described as a love song set against the backdrop of the end of the world, but for Anberlin, perhaps there’s more going on lyrically that that. But in the end, that doesn’t matter – nor should it. Like the rest of New Surrender, it simply sounds great.

“Miserabile Visu (Ex Malo Bonum)”
“Feel Good Drag”
“Younglife”
“Haight Street”
“Retrace”

Release date – September 30, 2008