Music / Surrender (Album)

"Hey girls, hey boys"
"Superstar DJs, here we go!"

Surrender is the third album by British electronic duo The Chemical Brothers, released in June 1999 under Virgin Records and their own inprint Freestyle Dust. It was accompained by the singles "Hey Boy Hey Girl", "Let Forever Be" and "Out of Control", and features guest vocals from Noel Gallagher,^note In "Let Forever Be" Bernard Sumner,^note In 'Out of Control". Hope Sandoval,^note In "Asleep from Day". and Jonathan Donahue.^note In "Dream On".

Tracklist

1. "Music:Response" (5:20)
2. "Under the Influence" (4:16)
3. "Out of Control" (7:20)
4. "Orange Wedge" (3:07)
5. "Let Forever Be" (3:56)
6. "The Sunshine Underground" (8:38)
7. "Asleep from Day" (4:47)
8. "Got Glint?" (5:27)
9. "Hey Boy Hey Girl" (4:51)
10. "Surrender" (4:30)
11. "Dream On" (6:47)

Trope:Response

• Busby Berkeley Number: The music video for "Let Forever Be", directed by Michel Gondry, features a woman constantly moving through sets via bizarre transitions and choreographed movement between the woman and her countless duplicates. Probably the only one to involve a drumming hobo.
• Crapsack World: The world in the music video of "Out of Control".
• Epic Rocking: "Out of Control" (7:20) and "The Sunshine Underground" (8:38).
• Fading into the Next Song:
  • "Under the Influence" → "Out of Control";
  • "Got Glint?" → "Hey Boy Hey Girl" → "Surrender" → "Dream On".
• Hidden Track: "Dream On" ends at five minutes into the song, and after brief period of silence, an jangly instrumental outro of said song starts to play before it fades out again.
• In the Style of: Like "Setting Sun" from the previous album, "Let Forever Be" is also inspired by The Beatles' "Tomorrow Never Knows", right down to having Noel Gallagher being the guest vocalist. Despite that, both "Setting Sun" and "Let Forever Be" are very different songs.
• Limited Lyrics Song: Bordering on Title Only Song, with the lyrics of the song being only a sampled clip of a woman saying "I was under the influence".
  • Closer "Dream On" contains the lyrics "Sleep on, dream on", which are looped on the track.
• New Sound Album: This album started the duo's transition from the psychedelia-inspired sound of Big Beat they were known in The '90s to the more house-oriented sound they would develop by the Turn of the Millennium. This proved beneficial in the long run as Big Beat reached its peak by the late 90's and would quickly decline in popularity by the early Aughts, while the duo was able to stay relevant for another decade.
• One-Word Title: Surrender.
• Out-of-Genre Experience: "Asleep from Day", an ambient/dream pop track outside of their usual flair of electronic dance music, and with Hope Sandoval on the vocals makes it feel like a Mazzy Star song instead.
• Questioning Title?: "Got Glint?"
• Sampling:
  • "Music:Response" samples "Make It Hot", a hit by by R&B singer Nicole featuring Missy Elliott released a year prior to the album;
  • "The Sunshine Underground" samples "Asian Workshop" by James Asher;
  • "Hey Boy Hey Girl" samples the opening stanza of "The Roof Is on Fire" by Rock Master Scott & The Dynamic Three.
• Shout-Out: "Let Forever Be" is clearly one for The Beatles' Let It Be.
• Single Stanza Song: "Hey Boy Hey Girl".
  "Hey girls, hey boys"
  "Superstar DJs, here we go!"
• Special Guest:
  • Bernard Sumner of the New Order fame takes the lead vocals in "Out of Control", with Primal Scream's Bobby Gillespie providing the backing vocals;
  • Noel Gallagher returns from the previous album to provide lead vocals in "Let Forever Be";
  • Mazzy Star's Hope Sandoval takes the lead vocals in the mellow "Asleep from Day";
  • Mercury Rev's Jonathan Donahue provides the vocals and additional arrangement in "Dream On".
• Title Track: "Surrender".

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Sleep on, dream on
Sleep on, dream on