Based in Athens, Georgia, indie rock quartet New Madrid released three albums between 2012 and 2016, starting with a southern flavoured indie rock on debut yardboat and ending up at fuzzed out psych-pop for the acclaimed magnetkingmagnetqueen. Five years later, New Madrid are back with a brand new self-titled album on Lemonade Records, and a newly honed sound to boot. “It feels like a cool re-set,” explains bassist Ben Hackett of their return to more rock-adjacent sound of their debut. “This is the closest to what the band has always sounded like in our heads.”
Which is not to say the New Madrid are done exploring other genres. Elements of psychedelia and post-punk dot the record, and single ‘Queen For A Day’ shows off a folk-inspired dimension too. With an intricate finger-picked sound, the song explores an even more intricate world, the song’s anxious rhythm evoking the digital age and its constant flow of information. “For me, it makes me think about the power behind looking for all the answers of the universe by just sliding around your phone screen,” says lead Phil McGill.
But further than this, the song delves deeper into the implications of such a society, where the people can be manipulated while the powerful evade the consequences of their actions. “I was curious about the poetic legal term ‘Queen for a Day’,” McGill continues, “that in short means your words cannot be used against you in a court of law primarily in the case of Government investigations.”
In such a world, access becomes a moot point. No amount of research matters when information is not equal, and the truth impinges on certain demographics but not on others. As McGill concludes, “The rules of the already tilted game board were being pushed to their ends. There was an absurdity to the evil that was lurking in plain sight. Felt like I was seeing the hands of the puppeteer in the frame.”
New Madrid is out on the 30th April via Lemonade Records.
