“Silence Between Songs” is an album so incredibly crafted by Madison Beer in which she goes through heartbreak, nostalgia, and finally self-discovery. She invites fans and listeners to break down all the emotions she felt in her upbringing and how life was not and will not be simple for anyone. There are challenges and barriers needed to kick down to achieve full self-fulfillment. My personal first impressions were that Madison’s voice has matured from her debut, and not only her voice but also the way she views a lot of aspects of life.
Madison Beer was born March 5th, 1999, in Jericho, New York. She released her debut song, “Melodies” followed by an expended play (EP) in 2018 which gained her the attraction of numerous K-pop groups leading for her to feature on 3 K/DA songs and going on tour the same years. She then released an album titled “Life Support” in 2021 quickly followed by the Life Support Tour starting on October 18th, 2021, and ending April 28th, 2022. Madison was quick to return to the studio releasing her second studio album “Silence Between Songs” just a year later doing yet another tour titled the “Spinnin Tour,” ending on September 2nd, 2024. While most know her from this, what a lot do not know is that they grew up listening to Madison’s voice on the recording of “We Are Monster High,” a notorious childhood song played at the beginning of every “Monster High” movie made. “Silence Between Songs” reached #16 on Billboards Top Album Sales Chart and had a nomination in the 66th Grammy Awards for Best Immersive Audio Album.
“Silence Between Songs” was Madison’s second studio album and reached a whopping 800 billion streams on Spotify, claiming the title of the fastest of Madison’s album to really pop off. The title itself calls to the self improvement and growth that happens in the silent moments of life compared to being distracted by other factors. A lyric that particularly stood out to me is in the first track “Spinnin” in which she says, “I woke up fell back to sleep, cause I’d rather live in my dreams. I lay here wondering why, did the world stop spinning or did I?” In this, Madison draws attention to the world around her constantly letting her down and needing to have escape with dreams and false realities to cope. Throughout the album, Madison goes from slower, toned-down songs that give a mood of sadness and depression to more lighthearted lyrics and quicker beat to show the transition out of the feeling of not being enough to learning that life can be anything you make it out to be if you continue to try. In the seventh track “I Wonder” she sings, “I used to life to die by somebody else’s side, but now a new day breaks, and I feel fine.” finalizing that she has entered a new era of her life and no longer lives to please those around her, but instead her self and the younger version of her who wanted nothing more than to be a different person entirely.
Along with her personal journeys throughout the album, Madison touches on the relationships with friends, family, and lovers who have brought her here. A song I personally relate to heavily is the 5th track, “Ryder”, the title being the name of Madison’s younger brother who she shares a close bond with, tied together with shared experiences, which is much how I feel about my older brother. My personal favorite, though hard to chose just one, is the 3rd track, “Envy the Leaves” where Madison features how the world around us such as the leaves and trees have nothing and no one to live for. Once again, she touches on how she feels trapped around what society wants her to be, conforming herself into that version, despite wanting to be free. Some of the tracks such as “Nothing Matters But You” can be boring to listen to as it is shorter and she repeats a lot of the same and/or similar lines, but in my opinion none of the tracks are necessarily bad, just less bone-chilling than the others. The album falls under the genre of pop, though it features an intense orchestration and some elements of soul music in most of the songs, making it an extremely diverse and fun album to listen to compared to most pop albums where most songs sound oddly similar.
My overall rating for this album if rating on a scale from 1-10 would be about a 9, as some of the songs are more boring than the others, but the others are incredibly made songs with the combination of her voice, the beat, the tone, and the lyrics. Madison made a perfect listen for someone who feels stuck and wants to escape from reality, giving them the reassurance that it will be okay, sometimes all you need is silence.
