shadow on my light maddy kirgo album art

Maddy Kirgo – Shadow On My Light

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Seven years since her self-released debut Another Love Song, New Orleans singer-songwriter Maddy Kirgo returns later this summer with her sophomore record. Released via Gar Hole Records, the album sees an evolution of Another Love Song‘s warm and timeless style, expanding in scope without sacrificing any of the intimate sincerity.

Recorded with Nick Corson and Duncan Troast (both of Video Age), the record takes the blueprint of classic country music and moulds it into a multitude of different forms, from distorted alt rock to dream pop that’s as steamy and sultry as the Louisiana air of the city they call home. This stylistic diversity is in no small part to Corson and Toast, whose own quirks and signatures come together to accentuate rather than muffle Kirgo’s style. “Nick and Dunan intuitively understood what it was that I was looking for,” Kirgo explains. “They have their own musical languages that they bring in and sprinkle throughout.”
Opener and latest single ‘Spare’ is the perfect introduction. What the label call “a sugar-sweet curveball of vocal runs and tasty bass scales,” the song’s laidback tempo and pliable vocals belie its serious subject matter. Kirgo wrote the track in a moment of converging hardships: the aftermath of a breakup, the death of a close friend and a forced evacuation due to Hurricane Ida. But rather than linger on the pain of loss, she instead focuses on the potential for growth and fresh starts, turning what could’ve been a sad song into something hopeful and empowering.
I’m so glad I met you
Our love was a dream come true
It’s not gonna fade away
Just lives in a different place
Our hearts aren’t broken
No, they’re growing

This sense of empowerment is a recurring theme across the record, as testified by lead single ‘Try Harder’, a song the label describe as “about being a confused young person and trying to do your best in a complex and uncertain world.” Sounding something like a long-lost nineties alt-rock-pop hit, the track packs in plucked acoustic guitar, wistful pedal steel and stabs of brash electric guitar as Kirgo does her best to deal with dashed dreams and grim realities, again striving to find positivity wherever she can. “It’s a pretty simple story,” Kirgo says. “This album was meant to bring me joy and I hope that, when people listen to it, they feel good.”

I’ve been trying hard to try harder
I stretch and drink my eight cups of water
I put down my phone, made me smarter
I’ve been trying hard to try harder


Shadow On My Light will be released via Gar Hole Records on 16th August. Pre-order a copy now from the Maddy Kirgo Bandcamp page.

maddy kirgo shadow on my light vinyl LP back cover gar hole records

Album art by Emma Ledgerwood, Feed My Ego