Music Review: Molly Brandt, ‘Surrender to the Night’
The Twin Cities-based alt-country rocker’s fiery debut album cements her place in the Midwest Americana landscape.
Molly Brandt’s Surrender to the Night album artwork.
At a recent songwriter rounds hosted by AiA contributor Tom Smouse, he asked participants a fun question: What was an “oh shit” moment in your musical journey? It could be “oh shit, this is a crazy situation” or “oh shit, I really screwed up,” or “oh shit, that was amazing!”
The first time I saw Molly Brandt live, I had an “oh shit” moment of my own. Oh shit, I thought, we needed this in the Twin Cities! We have a wealth of Americana talent here, but I felt like Brandt was filling a gap with her immediately iconic sound. She has a big country-diva voice and she’s not afraid to use it. Her songs and live show have drama and theatrical flair, but she’s not all style over substance—her band is beyond talented and her songs are smart and well-crafted as well as ear-wormy and entertaining.
That was early 2022, and I’ve seen her enough times since then to have learned her repertoire pretty well. Her debut album, Surrender to the Night (out tomorrow, Friday July 21), is practically a “greatest hits” compilation of songs I know and love. It’s exciting to hear them with studio polish (though they’re really faithful to her live renditions) and be able to absorb the lyrics at a level it’s hard to achieve while seeing someone live. And I hope this album gives legions of country music fans (in the Midwest and beyond) a chance to discover one of the Twin Cities’ newest and brightest stars.
Brandt is self-deprecating in interviews, making her songwriting and her growing popularity sound like happy accidents. But she’s either very serious about her craft or incredibly naturally gifted, because her songs have polish, sophistication and radio-friendly hooks, especially impressive when you consider it’s a debut album from a relatively new act.
Across 10 colorful story songs, Brandt puts fresh spins on classic country themes. “Bluff Country Paradise” is an easy-loping waltz about the restorative power of getting out of the city and into nature. “Eagles 34” is a spot-on advertisement for a real-life beloved Minneapolis venue known for country dancing, set to an infectious beat perfect for two-stepping. The appropriately named “Propane and Cigarettes” is a smoldering come-on power anthem about bar hookups, brimming with extra intensity because it’s set at the end of pandemic lockdown.
Molly Brandt. Photo credit: Tom Smouse.
The title track slows it down and tells a vivid, unapologetically melodramatic story of a runaway bride abandoning her nuptials for a lonely life of freedom, her veil blowing in the wind as she drives, planning to pawn her wedding ring and chase “neon lights”: “I’m giving up on being in love so I’m leaving you behind / and I’ll only surrender to the night.” The next track, “Revenge,” goes dark, a worthy addition to the feminist murder ballad country music canon. Something bad happens to a little girl—likely watching her father kill her mother—and she grows up with revenge on her mind and the urge to kill in her blood.
I could write a whole article about the next track, “Old Northern Woman.” Not only is it a stone cold banger—a perfect showcase of Brandt’s gift for thrilling wall-of-sound crescendos in her songs—the story is unique and instantly classic. In a small-town Minnesota bar, an older woman regales a younger one about the trials and struggles she’s lived through in her life. Through these stories, she imparts wisdom about resilience and women’s ability to overcome anything and come out stronger on the other side.
I’m trying to think of another song that’s a conversation between two women of different generations. The closest analog I can think of is Kenny Rogers’ “The Gambler.” (Actually I can think of a few other songs where older and younger men have a heart-to-heart, like Conway Twitty’s “Man in the Moon.”) While I love it, Dolly Parton’s “Jolene” with its competitive theme and uneven power dynamic doesn’t have the same feel. I doubt “Old Northern Woman” is the first song of its kind because there are multitudes I don’t know, but it definitely stands out as a rare gem to me. I want to see this become its own mini-genre in country music.
“Union Man” combines a classic honkytonk style and tempo with a bittersweet story about the challenges of being in love with a hardworking blue-collar guy who doesn’t have much time or energy to give to romance. “My Mind” melds 70s countrypolitan sounds with late-90s alternative elements for an angsty tale of one-sided love and the toll it takes on a person’s life and self-esteem.
“Rhinestone Teardrops,” another atmospheric, pulpy story song, could be a followup to the title track, a cautionary tale about the price of “surrendering to the night.” A world-weary country performer laments the emptiness she feels after a lifetime on the road and onstage: “I got everything I ever wanted / But now I got no soul.”
The album closes with “Minneapolis,” a moody heartbreak song set against the backdrop of the city in December, the melancholy of a failed love affair compounded by the malaise of being in the depths of our “bitter winter.” Although the song is desperately sad (and makes me think about our goddamn long awful winters), I love having another place-specific Americana song about the Cities. As Minneapolis/Chicago country artist Tommy Goodroad once pointed out, there just aren’t as many country songs about winter and the north, so songs like these help establish the North and Midwest as a legitimate source of (and setting for) authentic country music.
Surrender to the Night is one of the strongest contributions to Midwest country music I’ve ever heard, an incendiary debut packed with style and attitude from an artist who seems poised for ascent to regional if not national recognition.
Molly Brandt’s Surrender to the Night comes out tomorrow, Friday, July 21, 2023. Brandt will celebrate the album’s release with a show at the Turf Club in Saint Paul this Saturday, July 22. Music starts at 8:30pm with opening sets from local country rock acts Pit Stop and Becky Kapell.
Carol Roth. Photo credit: Dan Lee.
Carol Roth is a full-time marketing copywriter and the primary music journalist and social media publicist for Adventures in Americana. In addition to studying the guitar and songwriting, Carol’s additional creative side hustle is writing self-proclaimed “trashy” novels under the pseudonym T.A. Berkeley!
