CD Review: Madeline -- White Flag

Madeline

White Flag

Orange Twin

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 Americana and folk forebears for inspiration. For example, “Jive Talking,” the record’s 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.