Since breaking onto the scene on the CMA Award Stage a year ago, Madeline Edwards’ remarkable rise and noteworthy impression on the Country music industry has led to performances on some of the genre’s biggest stages and inclusions on Spotify’s ‘Hot Country Artists to Watch’ and CMT’s ‘Next Women of Country.’
Edwards has received notable acclaim for her unique ability to transcend musical boundaries with a one-of-a-kind sound that blends jazz, soul, gospel and country music. In addition to opening for Chris Stapleton’s “All American Road Show” this Summer, Edwards brought her show to SXSW as one of Rolling Stone’s Best of and performed at the Long Road Festival right here in the UK as part of Rissi Palmer’s ‘Color Me Country’ ensemble. ‘Crashlanded’ is her major label debut for Warner Music Nashville and it’s clear from the outset that we are witnessing the emergence of a truly unique artist.
Sometimes an album seems to be perfectly named. Def Leppard’s ‘Hysteria’, Springsteen’s ‘Born to Run’ and the Red Hot Chilli Peppers’ ‘Californication’ spring to mind when thinking about great titles that somehow captured the mood, style and spirit of the artists concerned. You can add ‘Crashlanded’ to that list – what a startlingly apt description for this project, a project that seems to have come out of nowhere and smashed its way into our consciousness. It also is a wonderful summation of what Edwards’ music represents: a heady, messy, exhilarating mix of styles that refuse to be confined to any one genre.
Speaking about the album to Billboard, Edwards says, ‘This particular album may have been in the works over the last couple years, but for me to get to this point and put out this kind of body of work has taken almost a lifetime. I’m very excited for everyone to hear the stories, the musical influences, the time and the experience that has brought me to this moment. ‘Crashlanded’ feels like my child.”
There’s a dreamy, atmospheric Pop/Western quality to a lot of the songs that will draw obvious comparisons to an artist like Kacey Musgraves but ‘Crashlanded’ is so much more than that. There’s J-Lo in there, there’s Katy Perry, there’s Adele and there’s Johnny Cash too. The title track being the best example of what I am saying. It starts in the desert, underneath dreamy, Western stars but the chorus explodes in a fusion of Pop joy as Edwards sings about isolation and alienation from what America is coming to represent right now. Similarly, songs like ‘Spurs’ and ‘Forehead Kisses’ bring the funk and the bombast in truly original ways. The former sees Edwards unapologetically telling the listener to ‘enter at your own risk’ on a song that erupts in a Bruno Mars-esque chorus built around a mantra of ‘you better watch yourself.’ There’s a dynamic guitar solo and a kind of reckless, breathless feeling to the whole song that is both energising and overwhelming in equal measure. ‘Forehead Kisses’, meanwhile feels like something akin to what the Bee Gees would sound like if they came out of Austin or Houston! Imagine a Texan version of Western disco with layers of sultry, strong vocals and a beat that niggles away at you somewhere deep inside.
‘Crashlanded’ also contains some major diva-style, atmospheric ballads. ‘How Strong I Am’ is a Gospel-tinged Pop/Country song full of wisdom and strength. ‘If I didn’t know pain,’ Edwards sings, ‘I wouldn’t know how strong I am.’ It’s a reflective commentary on her journey to where she is now and would be a world-wide smash in the hands of an artist like Adele. Similarly, ‘Why I’m Calling’ and Too Much of a Good Thing’ close down the album in atmospheric but subtly different ways. The former is a piano ballad full of longing for the security of home whilst ‘Too Much of A Good Thing’, a song that was written by Edwards on the evening that she found out she was going out on tour with Chris Stapleton, is a hopeful track based around a repeating piano melody that speaks to all our desires in searching for love, peace and happiness. Classy, clever and clearly both emotional songs for Edwards herself.
If it’s a bit of Rock you like in your Gospel, Jazz, Pop, Country soup then look no further than ‘Hold My Horses’, with its western vibes & plaintive plains feels. Edwards begins by singing about ‘golden palominos’ but the song soon erupts into an anthemic, Bon Jovi-adjacent Rock song sprinkled with a little dirty Blues for good measure. However, the two smash hits on ‘Crashlanded’ and the two songs that will drive this phase of Madeline Edwards’ career are ‘The Wolves’ and ‘Mamma, Dolly and Jesus.’ ‘The Wolves’ is a truly unique song with an atmospheric, moody opening and a defiant, bombastic chorus built around the ideals of strength, fight and pride. It’s such a visual song. I can see it being performed in arenas and award ceremonies the world over. There’s a great guitar solo, too, as Edwards takes us to church in the final third on a track that we could see everyone from J-Lo to Katy Perry to Adele kicking themselves for missing out on.
Stand-out track, meanwhile, and Country radio number-one-hit-in-waiting is ‘Mamma, Dolly and Jesus’. Written by such heavyweights as Laura Veltz, Jimmy Robbins and Jessie Jo Dillon alongside Edwards herself, this song has a galloping, Western tinged chorus with Edwards’ rich, deep vocals layered on top as she sings about ‘the only voices in my head that I tend to agree with.’ The song is classy, fierce and unapologetic, much like Madeline Edwards herself and with some deft handling from her label, this song will be the one that defines her career over the next 12 months.
‘Crashlanded’ is a triumph: a tour-de-force of visions which sees a smashing together of sounds and styles expertly executed with both class and finesse. Loud, dirty and defiant in some places, tender, fragile and gentle in others, it really is a unicorn of an album. There’s no-one out there doing what Madeline Edwards is trying to do with this album and for that she needs to be applauded, first and foremost, then nurtured and developed so that the widest amount of people who aren’t bound by the rules and boundaries of genres get to hear her music whilst the screaming, infantile voices of the traditionalists and gatekeepers are marginalised back into their nostalgic reveries for a time and an industry that never really existed in the first place. Edwards may well have ‘crashlanded’ amongst us but she’s more than welcome to stay for as long as she wants as far as we’re concerned.
Track list: 1. Crashlanded 2. Spurs 3. Mama, Dolly, Jesus 4. The Biggest Wheel 5. Forehead Kisses 6. The Wolves 7. How Strong I Am 8. Hold My Horses 9. Playground 10. Heavy 11. Why I’m Calling 12. Too Much of a Good Thing Record Label: Warner Music Nashville Release Date: November 4th Buy ‘Crashlanded’ now
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