Field Medic - Surrender Instead
2025 • SELF-RELEASED • FOLK / INDIE
79/100
On his latest album, Kevin Sullivan sounds more aware than ever of the work he had to put in to get where he is now. Field Medic has undergone a great evolution. At one point, Sullivan was alone with an acoustic guitar and a boombox of backing tracks; now, he’s recording and self-releasing full-band productions. This latest step in his evolution, Surrender Instead, finds Kevin searching for a better relationship with himself after years of hiding behind the guise of performance. The lush, autobiographical opening track, “Tricks and Illusions,” explores this journey: his early discovery of performance as an escape from hardship, the tumultuous results of that escape, and his eventual decision to use performance as a means to connect with himself. “I’m not saying that it’s over/but surrender is much closer/than when I was counting cards in my room.”
The album title, Surrender Instead, highlights this central conflict between escape and surrender, and the diminishing returns that come from constantly feeling the need to escape. He sings about the beauties of sightseeing in Western Europe over a stunning, finger-picked acoustic guitar on “Castle Peaks,” only to lament that he does not feel at home, admitting, “all my life on the run just lookin’ for a place to be.” On “No Hometown,” he expands on this feeling of having no home, and yet, with its folksy production and wistful harmonica solos, the track ironically makes Sullivan sound homesick, as if he just doesn’t want to admit it.
His themes are focused and crafted on Surrender Instead. In just 34 minutes, Kevin Sullivan has painted a vivid picture and constructed a convincing argument to live in the moment instead of running from it, no matter how empty it may feel. Every song feels connected, as if they are talking to each other. “Opposite Fantasies” expands on the ideas presented in the 60s-inspired doo-wop lead single, “Melancholy,” as do “No Hometown” and “Inferno.” “Falling Out” feels like a direct sequel to “Simply Obsessed.” He sings intimately about his relationship with performance and success in a way that is purely his own. This intimacy is why Field Medic's albums become such totems for his fans—records to be returned to and revisited. Multiple listens reveal new details every time.
The closing track, “The Journey to the Center of Nothing at All,” is a heartbreaking tale of what happens for Field Medic in the silence after the album ends. The song then expands to include life beyond the record—the unbelievable anxiety of living paycheck to paycheck at the whims of ‘artless corporate fucks who never wrote a song,’ the toxicity of online discourse, and the unfortunate satisfaction that comes from being acknowledged by it. The song is a career highlight. If “The Journey to the Center of Nothing at All” illustrates what Kevin Sullivan has worked so hard to escape from, then I can only hope he continues to practice the acceptance required to keep going.
PLAYER COMP: DEMAR DEROZAN
Been in the business for a long time, Connected with their fans because of their emotional honest, and continue to consistently put in the work.