White Flag
By Julia Reidy
It’s unfortunate that the first comparison we’re inclined to
make when it comes to female singer-songwriters is who else’s voice theirs
resembles. In this case, though, it seems a dual and unavoidable comparison.
Athens, Ga.’s Madeline Adams, on her third full-length release at least, sounds
like Regina Spektor in her lower range and is a dead ringer for a young Joni
Mitchell (before the cigarette-addled smokiness) in her upper register.
But Madeline has cut her own unique path through songstress
land. With a musical career behind her that started when she was 15 and was
nurtured by basically the whole of Orange Twin and the current Athens Elephant
6 contingent, White Flag gets a
helping hand from Claire and Page Campbell of Hope For Agoldensummer, Matt
Stoessel of South San Gabriel and John Fernandes of Olivia Tremor Control,
while still maintaining Madeline’s individual songwriting identity.
And that identity traverses the area between soft rockabilly
ditties and straight-up bedroom balladry, all with an intimacy that so many
strive for but never quite achieve. Immediacy seems to come easy for Adams, and
she dives at varying depths into
ostensible single, features a plodding brushed snare drum and shimmering female
backup vocals, through which Adams’ voice cuts
like a silvery knife. As one of the most heavily produced tracks, it runs the
risk of sounding overdone, but in the end it totally avoids that pitfall.
Instead, the song — and the album as a whole, actually — remains a charming
reminder of what frivolity can be found in the most earnest of people, and what
true beauty there is in that pain. Musically, Madeline is far from raising her
white flag.
