Album Review - RÜFÜS DU SOL - ‘SURRENDER’

REVIEW BY: Carla Jaeger

---

RÜFÜS DU SOL’s latest LP release, Surrender, leaves no room for argument about the Australian trio’s acumen to produce atmospheric dance beats. But, with a lack of adventure and overwhelming sense of predictability, this record fails to make an impact.  

 Surrender is certainly nothing to turn your nose up to from a production point - the blend of beats, timing and synths are all masterfully layered and executed to the highest of standards, and remind us why RÜFÜS have long been both adored and revered. It’s also the best they’ve ever been, a jump in quality and standard - albeit an incremental one - from their last LP, the critically-acclaimed 2018 release, S olace.  

The shift in quality was made apparent in the breadcrumbing of singles that dropped before the album’s release. Alive, Next To Me and On My Knees hinted that we were about to be reintroduced to RÜFÜS in a darker, more developed and stylised era than the one we left.  

And that we were. I Don’t Wanna Leave is brooding and desperate, Wildfire is foreboding and enticing, Devotion is both peculiarly bright and sharp. These tracks, along with Next To Me and On My Knees, are undeniably great, and the standouts of the record.  

But, while the album shows the trio’s ability to produce beat-building euphoria, like a bad box black dye and severely-angled fringe, it does little to hide what’s underneath: RÜFÜS may be trying a new look, but they’re still following the same formulaic structure of song production that catapulted them to fame years prior. And that is exactly where this record falls flat.  

Alive has a largely unnecessary reprise, See You Again is forgettable and dull, and its closing track, Always, could’ve been nabbed from one of their other records and I would not have known any difference.  

And while I’m curious about the inner machinations of this sordid love affair that’s presumably acted as inspiration to almost all of RÜFÜS’s songs, I am desperate for some variety away from the same themes of love and loss that are re-explored over and over again in the same minimal lyrical style they’ve carried throughout their discography.  

Certainly, there is nothing bad about the album - and I’m sure that there are those who would absolutely adore it. But, for me, without doing anything new, provoking or challenging, this album meshes into one beat-and-synth-driven glob.  

In the relief that followed the album’s closing, I was left with one concluding thought:  

 Surrender may be masterful in its production; it certainly is no masterpiece. 

Stream / Purchase Surrender
Watch I Don’t Wanna Leave

Surrender Tracklist

1. Next to Me

2. Make It Happen

3. See You Again

4. I Don’t Wanna Leave

5. Alive

6. Alive (Reprise)

7. On My Knees

8. Wildfire

9. Surrender (feat. Curtis Harding)

10. Devotion

11. Always