Surf received mixed to positive reviews upon release. Burhan Wazir, writing for The Observer, likened the album to Steve Earle's Train a Comin', declaring it "wonderfully understated", and noting a distinct departure from Frame's previous material; "There are few signatures here that have come to mark the work of Roddy Frame, the Pride of East Kilbride, with his previous band Aztec Camera. That said, Surf is one of his best records since 1987's breakthrough, Love. It's a break-up album and the sparse acoustic songs lend Frame a maturity he previously struggled to express." Q magazine's Jon Horsley also noted the difference in sound between Surf and "all of Frame's previous work". Singling out "Over You" and "Mixed Up Love" as two of the album's best tracks, he went on to praise Frame's vocals, lyrics, and songwriting ability; "Simplicity is the key, displaying Frame's deft hand with a lyric and mastery of direct songwriting. Best of all is Frame's now beautifully mature voice." Noting the record's "bare-bones" sound, Gary Glauber of PopMatters thought that the album comprised "a pleasant voice, competent musicianship and most important, strong songs". Drawing comparison with Ron Sexsmith's "best compositions", he surmised that Frame manages to succeed "where lesser talents would fall." Allmusic's Matt Fink also remarked upon Surf's "undiluted format", highlighting Frame's "clever and consistent" songwriting ability as two of the album's most positive aspects. Yet, despite claiming that Frame's "knack for subtlety and nuance makes for near perfect acoustic balladry", he found fault with both the vocal delivery—which he described as "indistinctive and overwhelmingly mellow"—and the record's "lack of both sonic and conceptual variation". Reviewing the album for The Guardian, Adam Sweeting also bemoaned the album's lack of diversity in which he felt that "Frame tends to stick to a fairly narrow palette of musical shapes and chord patterns", but also declared there to be "some treats if sampled sparingly", most notably "Over You", "I Can't Start Now" and "Big Ben". The Independent's Andy Gill highlighted "Frame's slightly sour vocals"—which he described as having "a desolate purity that recalls the draft-dodging Seventies troubadour Jesse Winchester"—but ultimately found Surf to be "too personal to afford much pleasure to the casual listener".
Accolades
* denotes an unranked list.
Album cover
The album cover shows a night-time skyline of London, in particular the tower of Guy's Hospital and is taken from the tower block Burwash House on Weston Street, London SE1 by Photographer Hannah Grace Deller inspired by the photo Nightview of Berenice Abbott made in 1932 in New York City. After Frame decided on the name Surf, he told photographer Hannah Grace Deller the name of the album. She then went and took this photo after. It was a memory from childhood that she had as she had lived in Burwash house and grew up in Bermondsey and was also born in Guys hospital.
