Nashville-based singer/songwriter Madison Steinbruck returns with her latest single, “Bad News.” The track, a third single off of Madison’s upcoming debut LP Australia’s Lonelier, discusses the disappointing realization that an ill-fated relationship has to come to an end. “This song is about the moment you realize you can still love someone while recognizing you can no longer be with them,” Madison shares. Her mesmerizing vocals swirl around a melancholy beat, classic cutting pedal steel melding with cello and electric guitar. “Sometimes I still think it’s sad/ that I could still love you/ But I don’t want you back,” she laments.
Originally from Corpus Christi, Texas, Madison has been writing songs since she was 5 years old. A move to Nashville brought opportunity as a performer, and fed her passion. Before the pandemic she moved to Australia, where she took piano lessons and spent time writing Australia’s Lonelier. The album was recorded at East Nashville’s Bomb Shelter. “Bad News” was penned abroad, and encompasses that period of forced self-reflection beautifully. Madison confesses in the second verse, “Oh I’m coming home/ I’ve been gone too long/ And everyone’s tired of talking to me on the phone.”
With a likeness to Faye Webster, Maggie Rogers, Lizzie McAlpine, and Leith Ross, Madison’s songwriting and bending of genres feels singular in its display. Her honest lyrics are reflected in multi-faceted instrumentation, all of which is played by Nashville musicians. The project is an amalgamation of everything that makes Madison who she is as an artist, traveler, and human.
Her previous single, “Kathryn,” highlights the devastation and hopelessness of falling for and finding out the person you love has been with someone else.The foundational roots of folk story-telling are not lost in Madison’s lyricism, but only amplified by her alternative guitars and drum lines. Above all, her songs aim to encompass the duality of loneliness and despair, loss and love, and the beauty of life and its unavoidable tragedies. She balances the complexity of emotions masterfully with poetic lines and moving sonics.
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