At the start of this year I was lucky enough to see Madison Cunningham live at Celtic Connections and she played a set made up almost entirely of new material on piano. The confidence she had in those songs, which now make up her excellent new album ‘Ace’, was entirely justified.
Despite winning Grammys in the folk category and being nominated in Americana too, Madison has always felt like a genre outlier. Her music is probably closest cousin to someone like Andrew Bird, her recent collaborator, but on this record she sounds more akin to Rufus Wainwright at his best and most inventive. Madison has said in a recent interview that this new album “is what I’ve always wanted to make. This sounds like me.”
The title of the opening instrumental ‘Shatter into Form’ tells us more about that process of becoming herself – both musically and personally she has been broken down and reformed after her recent divorce.
On ‘Shore’ she begins by exploring an obsession with a cynical man whom she longs to talk to – whether this song is about the beginning of her relationship or the end is unclear but there’s a longing in the delivery which suggests an unhealthy obsession. Musically we have lush piano and woodwinds throughout the album, an orchestral feel which creates a fantastical, otherworldly sound. Her voice has never sounded better: open, emotional, vulnerable, sharp and sweet.
‘Skeletree’ has an eerie quality to it in its repetitions of ‘something’s got to give’ and the darker tone it takes. The conclusion is that the emptiness of her marriage seems to have left her with no shade or protection – asking herself ‘did I get your love at the cost of my mind?’
She then offers us one of the most haunting songs on the album with ‘Mummy’ – this one particularly stood out when she sang it live. Here the unraveling of a marriage happens ‘all in time and suddenly’ and so she traces back the relationship to its beginning as a teenager, right through to some disturbing imagery about ‘arms swinging’ and how she had to become tall enough to ‘start hitting back’. By the end of the song she concludes the meaning of divorce is to ‘shatter into form’.
How literal these violent images are is not clear. Another song is called ‘Break the Jaw’, where even a look ‘draws blood’. On this song she uses a harsher more abrasive indie rock sound, repeating the refrain ‘I may never forgive you’ before turning it inward with ‘I may never forgive myself.’
‘Take Two’ is a moment of hush on the piano, an attempt at beginning again but here she admits ‘I’m afraid to write a simple song.’ She then heads into the dizzying confusion of ‘Wake’ where she has gone from following in someone’s ‘wake’ to having to ‘wake up’ and also to grieve the person who you’ve lost. Musically this one is the most ‘folky’ with Fleet Foxes adding to the fragile beauty of the song with Robin’s vocals and guitars.
After the second ‘Shatter into Form’ interlude she offers us ‘My Full Name’ – that simple love song she tried to write earlier. A beautiful piano ballad that on the surface offers us a moment of tenderness but even this one has an undercurrent, with hints of family ‘shame’ and secrets in their relationship.
On ‘Beyond that Moon’ she’s trying to reclaim herself, get away from the old life. Her freedom ‘weighs a ton’. By the end of the album on ‘Best of Us’ she finds herself laid low again, asking herself ‘who gave up first’ before concluding ‘maybe the best of us are only good at taking / the rest of us are only good at faking’. She reluctantly puts her ‘baggage’ into the overhead and flies on, someone else in the pilot seat. But perhaps another, earlier image of ‘all the wildflowers where the plane went down’ is the image to take from this album. Beauty grows despite the wreckage.
Recorded last autumn ‘Ace’ feels like the perfect album for this season of growth and harvest among the loss. Madison Cunningham once again proves herself to be one of the most interesting and inventive young musicians we have.
Tour: https://www.madisoncunningham.com/tour/
Interviews:
Bluegrass Situation: https://thebluegrasssituation.com/read/how-guidelines-made-madison-cunninghams-ace-feel-totally-free/
New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/08/arts/music/madison-cunningham-ace.html
Highway Queens 
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