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There exists an inherent magic in witnessing the transcendence of a template – seizing a formula everyone has appropriated before and bending it to your will, such that you’ve earned the right to call it all your own. If you fully understand why a trope exists, you would have constructed something similar from the ground up and not have blindly copied a model; the resemblance arises not from replication, but a shared intuition naturally producing a similar result. Only after building that skeleton from scratch of your own accord can you imbue your voice into the work intentionally and ubiquitously, and I believe this is what MADELN has accomplished with her recent single.

MADELN, a one-person powerhouse hailing from Thailand, is equal parts singer, songwriter, and producer. And that’s just the musical front; don’t forget videographer, music promoter, video editor, and graphic designer. Very few are able to encompass the whole package of the industry, and how lucky we are to have chanced upon one of those few!

Her most recent single, Girlfriend, has been put forth as a personal triumph – the embodiment of the creative voice she’s been excavating. I’m inclined to disagree on just one tiny front: I personally find that her creative voice has been ultra-distinctive since her first Spotify release.

As I mentioned at the outset, MADELN has exhibited a tendency to take tried-and-true musical trends and refresh them. While you can logically pinpoint where the larger, macro-scale similarities lie, it’s the little things that show that personal touch and ownership. Once the listener feels that they're listening to something new, you’ve won your claim.

Allow me to walk you through what I mean. Upon hitting play, the first ten seconds play an RnB-esque drum groove that maybe you’ve heard before. What matters is that it’s groovy. The vocals subsequently enter with chordal pads in tow – both with complementary syncopative rhythms. That’s a pretty strong start – even if there’s nothing revolutionary yet, but you can’t deny that the effort has been comprehensive. Here’s the skeleton that you recognise.

Now, the second verse is where the magic begins. At 0:23, what seems to be a dampened piano begins to play on the first beat of every bar. When the bass enters at 0:28, with it come auspicious sleigh bells, but they only appear every four bars for now; in a bit, they’ll play every two bars. A wise choice – saturating the ear with a rare timbre so early defeats the purpose and hooks the mystique. Switching up the intervals early also cleverly tricks the ear into perceiving greater dynamism than there actually is, allowing you to keep to the newer interval for longer without it getting stale.

Then, backup vocals pop up at 0:32 with a melodic and rhythmic contour that’s not irregular, but the important part is that there’s variation at 0:36, conveying a human, intuitive adaptability. 0:38 is when a cute little wooden block with syncopated hits arrives. (The fact that the sleigh bells play once every two bars, when a new instrument is likely to be introduced, further emphasizes the novelty of the soundscape created. It’s like it celebrates every new arrival and amplifies the resultant impression on the listener.) Finally, the chorus arrives and lasts throughout 0:48-1:07, and I’m not sure if what I’m hearing is industrial percussion – hits on metal cans and bins – or standard bongos and stick clicks. Anyhow, what’s important is that you don’t hear these often. I’m not sure if MADELN recorded all these samples herself, but the grungy audio quality really helps underpin an organic, indie sound.

It’s this minute of rapid yet minuscule and seamless development that transforms the archetype and sears it as unique. Of course, it’s all buttressed by the fact that the single sounds very good. Aesthetic pleasantry and aesthetic proficiency are, very naturally, mutual score multipliers. It certainly helps that the instrumentation still has changes to go within its remaining runtime; it never sounds old. And that’s the key to staying power.

While I truly believe that a technically proficient song deserves a technical breakdown of what makes it so great, here are some impressionistic reflections to balance it out:

  • Melodic variation! I love that it’s just a little different each time; it’s both entertaining and evidence of MADELN’s strong musical instinct.
  • Enunciation! Songs where I can pick out every lyric without a transcript necessitate two awards of credit – mixing and vocal performance. Well done.
  • Syncopation! Most of Girlfriend’s syncopation sneaks under the radar because 1) it’s omnipresent and baked into the entire soundscape; you’ve been conditioned to it, and 2) it shows up mostly in the less salient instrument parts, e.g. the cute wooden block. Understated, seamless syncopation is the magic ingredient for head-bopping juice. (What I mean to say is, it’s not out of the question that I was dancing a lil jig, perhaps laughably poorly, while listening to the track for the review.)

To round this off, let me just say that MADELN’s creative voice was so strong that I was urged to check out her other releases, and I was pleased to find that they were all fantastic! Practically all my commendations for Girlfriend apply to her other singles, What’s in the World and Lift.

I similarly urge you to check her music out on Spotify and join me in keeping up with what she’s up to on Instagram. I have great faith that her future music is sitting on a mountain of promise.

And with that, that’s the end of this single review! Thank you for making it this far, and I hope you found this as enjoyable to read as it was for me to write. If you have anything to add to the conversation, you can make a free account at iaasmusic.com right now and head on down to leave a comment!