Surrender (The Chemical Brothers album)

Surrender
Studio album by The Chemical Brothers
Released	21 June 1999 (1999-06-21) (UK)
Recorded	1998
Genre	Electronica, trip hop, house, big beat, acid house, neo-psychedelia
Length	58:58
Label	Virgin (UK) Freestyle Dust (UK) Astralwerks (US)
Producer	The Chemical Brothers
The Chemical Brothers chronology
Dig Your Own Hole (1997) Surrender (1999) Come with Us (2002)
Singles from Surrender
"Hey Boy Hey Girl" Released: 31 May 1999 (UK only) "Let Forever Be" Released: 2 August 1999 "Out of Control" Released: 11 October 1999 (UK only) "Music: Response" Released: 6 March 2000

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[1]
The Austin Chronicle	[2]
BBC Music	(favorable) [3]
Robert Christgau	[4]
Entertainment Weekly	B+ [5]
Los Angeles Times	[6]
Melody Maker	[7]
NME	(8/10)[8]
Pitchfork Media	9.0/10 [9]
Q	[10]
Rolling Stone	[11]
Select	[12]

Surrender is the third studio album by British big beat duo The Chemical Brothers, released on 21 June 1999. It features Noel Gallagher (Oasis), Hope Sandoval (Mazzy Star), Bernard Sumner (New Order) and Jonathan Donahue (Mercury Rev) as guest vocalists. It was certified 2× Platinum by the BPI on 30 September 2005.^[13]

The album saw a change in style for the duo, moving from big beat to instead explore house. The album was the band's second number one album. Many of the artists that the duo worked with on this album, they would work with again. The duo were quick to work again with Bobby Gillespie, who appears on the third track and third single "Out of Control", as they remixed Gillespie's Primal Scream song "Swstk Ys" (as it was titled on the 1999 single release) which later appeared on the band's 2000 album Xtrmntr. Surrender was the first Chemical Brothers album not to feature a guest appearance from Beth Orton, though she would appear on the following album Come with Us on the song "The State We're In". A special tour edition of the album was released in Australia and New Zealand, which contained a second disc of B-sides from the album.^[14]

Album cover

The album cover appeared in Q (magazine)'s 2001 list of "Q's 100 Best Record Covers of All Time". At the time of the accolade, Ed Simons said of the album cover "We liked the idea of everyone else sitting down and being chilled out and just one person really getting it, like one of our gigs in the Midwest, actually".^[15] The magazine stated, however, in February 1999 the duo were confronted with a novel problem: they had, in Simons' words "about two weeks" to sort out an album cover, plan a live show, and do endless promotional duties in Japan. At one point, the image that was used as the single cover for "Out of Control", released later in 1999, was intended to be the album cover of Surrender.

Singles

"Under the Influence" was released in June 1998 on vinyl as "Electronic Battle Weapon 3", exclusively for DJs to test in clubs. "Hey Boy Hey Girl" was released on 31 May 1999 as the first official single from the album. It reached number 3 on the UK Singles Chart.^[16] The second single, "Let Forever Be", was released on 2 August 1999 and reached number 9 in the UK Singles Chart.^[17] This was followed by "Out of Control" which was released on 11 October 1999 and reached number 21 in the UK Singles Chart.^[18] "Music: Response" was released on 6 March 2000. It was not eligible for the UK charts because its release contained five songs instead of three, which is required for qualification.

Track listing

The song "Dream On" contains a hidden track, which is a reprise of the same song.

Personnel

• Tom Rowlands
• Ed Simons
• The Chemical Brothers - producers
• Steve Dub - engineer
• Jon Collyer and Ray Mascarenas - assistants
• Blue Source, The Chemical Brothers - art direction
• Kate Gibb - screen prints
• Bernard Sumner - vocals and guitar on "Out of Control"
• Bobby Gillespie - additional vocals on "Out of Control"
• Noel Gallagher - vocals on "Let Forever Be"
• Hope Sandoval - vocals on "Asleep from Day"
• Jonathan Donahue - vocals, guitar, and piano on "Dream On"

Samples

• "Music: Response" - Nicole Wray's "Make It Hot"
• "The Sunshine Underground" - Jame Asher's "Asian Workshop"
• "Asleep from Day" - Brian Eno's "Deep Blue Day" (uncredited)
• "Got Glint?" - Amplitude's "Earthmessage"
• "Hey Boy Hey Girl" - Rock Master Scott & the Dynamic Three's "The Roof Is on Fire"

Release history

Reception

Leeds band The Sunshine Underground took their name from the sixth track on the album.

The song "Asleep from Day" was used in a 2000 television advertisement for the French airline Air France by Michel Gondry,^[19] as well as in an advertisement for the White Sheet Campaign by MADD Canada,^[20] and a trailer for the 2009 film The Vampire's Assistant.

References