Photo by Josefine Cardoni
Review: Juliana Madrid glows with sophomore EP, ‘Afterlife’
The pop singer’s sophomore EP is just a delight.
Juliana Madrid’s Afterlife bursts from the seams. Scattering herself into the wind, the eight-track record blissfully melts together genres, from chewy guitar-led indie to effervescent pop. There’s a sense of creative liberation simmering below the surface, as though Madrid’s entire life has led up to this very moment. She collects songs and experiences like fireflies housed in a Mason jar. Each one flickers with blinding clarity, fluttering its wings and ready to soar again. She’s got raw nerve in her songwriting (she co-wrote all the tracks) and a great sense of effective thematic stitching.
“Now I’m alone, and I hate it / On my way home, feeling anxious,” she sings with the rollicking rock-flecked tune “Satisfied.” She casts off a lover (“We didn’t last the night / Guess I’ll see you next time”), letting the sting settle into her bones. “Trackstar,” perfectly neon with sax lines piercing through, continues stretching her muscles, elastic and rubbery. But it’s songs like the deep-sleep reverie “White Montana” and the rhythmically palpitating “Pixelated” that truly showcase an artist in bloom. It’s only her sophomore extended play, yet she demonstrates a knack for both melody and soul-probing lyrics that hold up a mirror to the audience. She transcends the moment, but her work remains firmly rooted in contextualizing the present. She bares her scars, as she does on the echoing closer “Let the Light,” featuring some of her most skin-dicing lines (“I was your Paramore, and you were a decision”).
Madrid permits the instruments to breathe, too, even when compressed or synthesized. Each moment heaves, as though living creatures slithering in the earth. Afterlife glows with lyrically sinewy and glossy pop music that marks the singer-songwriter as one of the finest of her generation. She’s cooked up an impressive melting pot – from the punkish pop-rock title track to the slippery “Silica,” an exercise in musical potency. Her influences clearly run the gamut, and none get marred by the others. In fact, they amalgamate, resulting in a bright synergistic effect.
Juliana Madrid’s Afterlife EP tickles the senses. Eight tracks are an experience together, rather than separate songs cobbled together without rhyme or reason. They mean something, with Madrid rising and falling through vats of dreamy elixirs that transform you from the inside out. Not a single chord or vocal note is wasted. Each heart-torn confession is a peek into her soul – and from the very last line, you’ll never be the same.
