Terms Of Surrender

It's a myth that most artists need a crisis in order to be creative, but there is anecdotal evidence to suggest bad times can trigger someone's need to express themselves. M.C. Taylor has been steadily productive as a songwriter and recording artist with his project Hiss Golden Messenger, creating a strong and expressive body of work since making his debut with Country Hai East Cotton in 2009. But in 2018, Taylor found himself dealing with the death of his father while his long-standing depression ramped up considerably and he began having serious doubts about how his nomadic life as a musician was impacting the lives of his children. The 2019 Hiss Golden Messenger album Terms of Surrender was written and recorded while Taylor was stricken with grief and struggling with his darker emotions, and in a press piece about the album he described the songs as "my therapy and my church." While not all of Taylor's emotional trials are clearly expressed in the lyrics, Terms of Surrender is an album that clearly deals with sorrow and uncertainty. But it's an album that also finds its share of joy in this world, and the music is full of hope and a potent sense of life as a difficult but worthwhile experience. "Whip" clearly deals with the demons that haunted Taylor, but as he sings in his chorus, "I was tired of the whip/Don't you get it?/Don't let it in/It'll change you." And Taylor struggles with uncertainty in "Happy Birthday, Baby," but the love he expresses for his children speaks of a compassion that's vivid even if he can't always extend it to himself. Unlike most Hiss Golden Messenger albums, Taylor's frequent creative partner Scott Hirsch wasn't part of the team for Terms of Surrender, but producer Brad Cook helps Taylor give this music a sound that's natural but clear, present, and inviting, and the musicians (including multi-instrumentalist Phil Cook, Aaron Dessner of the National, and Jenny Lewis) bring a solid groove to the melodies that's easygoing but funky when it wants to be and eloquent when it needs to be. One hopes that M.C. Taylor's dark clouds have parted, but on Terms of Surrender he's taken his troubles and made something beautiful and inspiring out of them. If you want to use music as therapy, this is the way to do it. ~ Mark Deming