Best known for the intricate guitar-work which guided the warm, woody folk-rock of her 2022 Grammy-winning album Revealer, Madison Cunningham opens her latest project Ace instead with swathes of rippling piano.
The instrument is the main protagonist across the record, pairing sweetly with the Californian musician’s crystal-clear vocals on tracks like lead single ‘My Full Name’, which recalls the intimate art-pop of Regina Spektor.
Elsewhere the album is more fluid and impressionistic, piano swirling restlessly amongst moody clarinet and strings. Songs shift like the weather, disintegrating into choppy rhythms and murky chords before cohering into choruses again, echoing Cunningham’s lyrical…