Premiere: Madi Rindge shatters the patriarchy with debut EP, ‘Just One’

“Madi, can you just meet me for five minutes, please?” a dejected lover pleads. But Madi Rindge has had just about enough of the bullshit. “You’re messing with the wrong girl / I could fuck up your whole world,” the pop sleuth spits furiously with “Somethin’ on Ya,” a grungy pop track daring to expose the truth from her debut EP. Just One is a labor of womanly power, a mammoth display of vulnerability, strength and wisdom. “After being involved in a toxic and abusive relationship for over a year, I turned to songwriting to escape and find a way out of what felt like a trap,” she tells B-Sides & Badlands, premiering the EP in full today.

“I wanted something else / Now, I couldn’t wait to start my new life,” she muses on the titular cut, embellished with soothing wind chimes and a languid groove, opening the set with chill confidence. Later, she peels back the pressure to act and speak and love a certain way, “Just need one somebody who will always love me for the way that I am, for everything I can and can’t do.” Rindge’s vocal is silky, lilting even, but assertive. While “Perfect” (“Not gonna miss ya honey or your possessive ways,” she sings) is icy and sustains the EP’s scarred edge, “Fire” reveals her trembling fear bubbling just below the surface. “My grip is tight, holding on like I’m falling off the edge,” she mutters into fog of despondent production, ticking along feebly. “Stars” bookends with one acidic vocal tinge ⎯⎯ she unearths even more brittle, immobilizing emotions. “I can’t hide from all my feelings like I used to,” she confesses, as the song slowly begins to simmer into EDM-lite drops and dizzying swirls.

“Each song revolves around the theme of being a woman in a modern, patriarchal society, where women are taught to look a certain way, want certain things and love a certain way in order to be accepted, respected and ultimately loved,” she continues, detailing the project’s towering presence and her role planted squarely amidst an ever-changing world. “Writing this EP helped me rediscover who I am, change the expectations I held of myself and others and learn more about what I would and would not accept.”