Madison Cunningham’s music strikes several difficult balances: rooted in rock history but not backward-looking; driving but not pushy; thoughtful but not pretentious.
All of these balances are evident on Cunningham’s 2019 LP Who Are You Now, which I’ve been listening to incessantly recently, because it’s somehow extremely easy to listen to without being, well, “easy listening.”
Several of Who Are You Now’s songs would fit well on this list – “Trouble Found Me,” “Dry As Sand,” “Like You Do” – but somehow the lead track sticks with me the most, and encapsulates all the ingredients that make Cunningham’s music work.
What makes this a beautiful song:
1. The main riff. Like Lianne La Havas, Cunningham’s talent on the guitar is evident, but never showy. The skill supports the song, rather than the song being a showcase for the skill.
2. The lyrics. Like The Staves, Cunningham writes about well-worn subjects, but in ways that don’t rely on well-worn turns of phrase. In this song, she sings about the uneasy feeling that a relationship has hit an impasse, but the participants are unable (or unwilling) to admit what’s wrong: Maybe it’s time that I take a good look around / At what we have learned to live with / And what we can’t live without / The pain that we hold so dear Looks so small and vain from here / When we’re standing right where we said we would never be.
3. The musical cleverness. Like St. Vincent, Cunningham uses intervals and time signature changes to reflect the song’s meaning. The uneasiness in the lyrics, the inability to “pin down” the problem, is reflected in a main riff that uses both the major and minor third, and a time signature that switches to 7/8 in the chorus.
Recommended listening activity:
Buttoning up a shirt and misaligning a button on purpose.