A completely solo affair with a surplus of indelible melodies, Surf features only the acoustic guitar and wounded tenor of the once precocious, teenaged linchpin of Aztec Camera, who burst on the scene in 1983 with the brilliant High Land, Hard Rain. These are late night, love gone wrong songs, and often the pain is self-inflicted. This particular refrain crystallizes the album’s lovelorn mood:
“When I was young the radio played just for me. It saved me,
And now I don’t want anyone who wants me, baby
Tuning out the darkness,
Turning on the dawn,
If life was like songs, I’d surf into the waves,
And in a flash of silver she’d be gone’
Roddy Frame - "Surf"