Review Summary: A cavernous art-pop epic.
Sloppy Jane recorded
Madison, a masterpiece of baroque art pop, in some creepy old cave with a creepy old piano and you can
tell. Of course the mythos of going to a remote location to write an album is not anything new and is, if anything, almost to be expected at this point. For every time that an artist writes and records an emotionally raw album in some snowy Wisconsin cabin, there’s another artist that says they spent two weeks in the desert as a marketing ploy for an album that sounds like it came straight from some record exec's overly polished dreams. This isn’t meant to discount this geographic inspiration for artists and the depths they go to for their art, but isolation-chic has lost some of the mystique it once held. Sloppy Jane’s
Madison is slightly different, as Haley Dahl, the singer, lyricist, and composer behind Sloppy Jane, didn’t live underground in a cave to write the album (although I wouldn’t put it past her), but the cave aesthetic is front and center - the phrase “Recorded in Lost World Caverns” is featured on prominently on the album art, as is the cavern itself. There are some very natural acoustics on display from the caverns, as the orchestral sounds featured across the album almost swell together in a very organic way. From the natural plops of waters, the almost subdued echo, and the natural sound, the caverns are an additional, integral instrument in the album.
Now I don’t want to place too much emphasis on the recording setting and make it appear as though this album is successful only because of a gimmick. If it had been recorded in a regular studio, it still would have had an incredibly innovative sound. However, the caverns are far more than a physical place where the music was recorded - They are also a physical manifestation of the sound that Sloppy Jane has created here.
Madison is a mixture of baroque pop, art rock, classical music, and a dark twist on Broadway showtunes.
Madison isn’t just a series of tracks - It’s an experience, meant to be listened to in the clearly thought out sequencing that it appears in. It reflects the cave setting that it exists in. There’s an awe-inspiring natural beauty throughout, but also dark shadows, places that we’re afraid to go but must go anyway in order to fully experience the depth of what is on offer. It’s a big, detailed record, created by 21 musicians and is nearly impossible to fully grasp on a single listen. New details will be revealed with every single exploration.
The opening “Overture” truly does sound like the overture for a twisted Rodgers & Hammerstein musical and is already a clear departure from the former art-punk stylings of Sloppy Jane. In case that departure wasn’t clear enough, “Party Anthem” arrives as a sweeping epic focused on the forgetting of traumas, with bouncing strings, a cacophony of explosive horns, a children’s chorus that is haunting while also being charming, and a mesmerizing vocal performance from Dahl that calls Kate Bush to mind. While Kate Bush, Fiona Apple, and artists of their ilk are certainly influences, it’s unfair to compare the work of Sloppy Jane to another band or artist. There are just as many similarities with The Beach Boys and Radiohead as there are the aforementioned artists, but those influences are just that - Influences, not derivations. Dahl has created something entirely her own. “Jesus and Your Living Room Floor” is an 8 minute, slow burner that begins as a piano not-quite-ballad that erupts in an orchestral arrangement that is genuinely anxiety inducing and terrifying, all while being majestic at the same time. The orchestral arrangements crafted throughout “Madison” are truly what make the album. There are a number of just instrumental pieces that work fully in the context of the album, with the Aaron Copland-esque “Wonderama” sounding like it should belong in a ballet, but instead falls between the lush indie rock of “Wilt” and the 9 minute “The Constable”, a fitting operatic pop finale.
While there is is a clear tie of themes between all of the songs, it’s not quite correct to say that
Madison is a concept album. To again steal from the Broadway vernacular, it might more accurately be described as a song cycle - A collection of songs by a single composer that are all clearly linked together and meant to be performed together, but are all loosely connected by theme and sound as opposed to story. While this might just sound like a convoluted way to describe an album, the theatrical element cannot be understated. It explores the deepest corners of grief, trauma, and sorrow. “Judy’s Bedroom” does this through the story of Judy Bruce, and Bianco Castiofore does it through a non-lyrical piece that is inspired by a character from the Adventures of Tintin, and “Lullaby Formica” is a play on a number of different children’s lullabies. Three very different inspirations that are tied together through the artistry of Dahl’s compositions and, when applicable, lyrical prowess. These themes and sounds culminate in the nine-minute-epic “The Constable”, the finale of the album. Although technically not the final song, there is a strong sense of finality to it. There are numerous statements of goodbye, a variety of deaths are described, and the end of the world is described in gut-wrenching beauty. As the chaos and fear from humans of the world is described, our narrator is experiencing it in their own unique way:“
Some took the seas, while others watched their TVs/Dying with dignity and grace/But I just ignored it, I sat on the doorstep/Of the house where you used to live”. The song then fades into a repeated countdown and cheer of “Happy New Year” for over a minute, implying that this end could also be a brand new beginning, perhaps the most, and potentially only, optimistic message to be found across this 49 seconds.
That implication is made even stronger by the fact that “The Constable”, clearly set as the finale of the album, isn’t actually the final song. Sloppy Jane instead leaves us with an acoustic “Epilogue”. It brings together many of the earlier themes from the album, focusing largely on Dahl feeling as though she is a burden. There is really no feeling of relief or catharsis from the darkness of the album. If anything, “Epilogue” hammers those feelings in. The message that ties
Madison together seems to be, simply, that bad things happen to people. There’s no “but” or “and” after that statement, just that bleak truth. But Haley Dahl and the other members of Sloppy Jane have put together that message in such a vast and dazzling package that it takes that unfortunate truth of life and makes it dark and sometimes exhausting to trek through, but also a beautiful thing to experience and makes us reflect on our own humanity - Rather like exploring a cave.
