What is real nowadays, and how much does it matter? Or, let me put this another way. Would you still care about popular music if you’d learn that every single song or album that you’ve ever liked had been created by an army of a dozen music producers stuck in a laboratory-like recording studio and with incredibly early access to generative AI technology?
The vast majority of listeners, we already knew, and the knowledge has been reaffirmed through recent discussion about AI, want their pop stars alive, thinking and finding ways to get out of the problems which they’ve created themselves. The world still wants real singers and songwriters wrestling with life’s big questions and music’s equally complicated riddles.
Yes, the world still wants to give its love to singer-songwriters just like the young, but prolific Maddisun, a pop star who uses her vast vocabulary of folk and country as the starting point for her own sweet, palatable compositions.
“The Pages (Chapter One)” is already the artist’s third full-length release. But it’s an album that’s made fascinating by just how youthful, enthusiastic and, at times, confused it all sounds. This is someone discovering the world and herself in it while writing it all down.
The album’s opener, the title track, calls to mind the 1990s artists who blended modern pop and classic country to good effect and reached the success that they’d been dreaming of. Still, Maddisun knows that a nice sound isn’t enough. The artist opens up in search of a real connection with potential fans.
The same philosophy is maintained across the song collection. “Pumpkin Pie” is a cute C&W song about an impossible-to-ignore attraction. And, on the jingle-jangle of “Good Plan,” Maddisun confronts her hopes and fears of music stardom.
And, just to prove that this is a modern release steeped in tradition, side B of the album, the final six songs, are made available through purchase of a physical copy or through Bandcamp.
Why support this artist? Firstly, because this is the work of a young artist. Plenty of work and soulfulness are put into tracks like “Colours” with its nicely blended vocals, or “Amber” with melodies that almost quote from the Lilith Fair crowd of 1990s alt-rock.
As the album winds down, you can’t help shake off the feeling that you’ve seen these stories before, maybe in a movie. “The Pages” flows like an alternative soundtrack to movies like “Almost Famous.” Where does this leave us? In Maddisun’s case, desperately seeking beauty, great art, and, yes, fame. Wouldn’t you rather she have it with all of her hard work and talent, rather than a team of faceless music producers?
This album was produced in collaboration with Maddisun’s partner, Julian Bueckert (Bonecrusher Collective).
