Surrogate: Love Is For The Rich

Surrogate doesn’t sound like the “hardcore” label the industry smacked on them. Consisting of two former members of Number One Gun, Surrogate never venture down the same road twice, whether it’s the simple but sleek “15” that glides along as if on cruise control before a dreamy, magical chorus chimes in. But getting back to the hardcore, when was the last time you heard a hardcore band use a banjo. Recalling or resembling John Fogerty lost in a moment of deep reflection, a song such as “Talk of the Weather” has a lot of oomph and clout despite the rather tame nature to it. Mellow is the mood oozing out of “Photographic Memory” that one could fall asleep to (in a good way) and the rather light, breezy “Easy”, which sounds like it was easy to record. Surrogate at times sound like they’re channeling everything that is good about Neil Young during the roots-y “Death Penalty”. Fans of the City and the Colour or Dashboard Confessional would soak up tunes such as “Papertrail” and especially the somber, sullen “Upside Down Pictures”.