‘Lady on Arbor Hill’ by Madison Taylor is a sweeping indie-folk/pop album that is ethereal bright and darkly haunting. Its lines are deeply poetic, in the vein of poets and writers like William Wordsworth & Alfred Lord Tennyson, telling stories of love lost and bargained for.
The ten tracks on the album move from light, yet distant highs to sweeping, yet ever-present emotional depths. Each song contains stories of irresistible attraction, wistful longing and begrudging acceptance of forgone conclusions.
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‘Lady on Arbor Hill’: Bright Innocence…
The first track ‘Milk Chocolate’ holds a sweetness in its expansiveness. A looping guitar trots through the song with deliberate percussion as the singer sings about their attraction to someone whose eyes are “…soft and are filled with milk chocolate…”. It’s a song about someone who feels nebulous and too good to be true.
‘Golden Image’ feels like a response to the last song with soft synths and a slight funk. It idealises this nebulous attraction while conjuring up an almost perfect image in the mind. “…I made a golden image out of you…”. “…You can’t take your image away from me, it only exists within my mind…”.
‘German Statue’ introduces something a bit more tentative, dark and gothic to the album’s soundscape. Its lines seem to thread the thin line between temptation and attraction, the song seeming to long for this fatal attraction to remain permanent, like a statue. “…I want to rest inside an engraving of his name…”.
‘Violet’s Library’ has an ethereal sense of place, its epistolary form addressing this place from a perspective of sensation and memory. Its instrumentation is deliberately minimal, allowing the words to weave their imagery, narrative and emotion into something longing, wistful and moving.
The ‘Nostalgic Interlude’ is a piano-led instrumental pause with strings that sounds like something from a bodied past. Its melodies are familiar in a way that makes the song accessible, allowing the longing and wistfulness of nostalgia to penetrate and move.
‘Lady on Arbor Hill’: …to Dark Wistfulness
‘Waldeinsamkeit’ is a layered, piano-led piece with lines that amplify and intensify the track’s longing. Its haunting lyrics reflect a mood that is bright in its hollowness, but hollow and almost melancholic just the same. “…How easily the light seeps in now that I’m hollow within….”. “…I’m dying of loneliness, but it feels so cryptically sublime…”.
‘Paint Mine Blue’ seems to highlight the songwriter’s ability to use simple metaphors to paint rich, moving images in only a few lines. The song’s guitar-led, ethereal vocal highlights this. “…Aren’t I so kind to you? Leaving your life golden, while I paint mine blue…”.
‘Snow Kiss’ allows similar imagery and emotion to guide it. Its soundscape feels deep and cold, with hurt and haunting bitterness. It’s about two people who aren’t suited for each other, one coming to realise and accept this. “…You cling to winter’s snow kiss, but my summer sun is relentless….”.
“…If I want to feel your coldness,
My life I’d have to extinguish…”.
‘Arbour Hill’ is the titular song on the album, that paints a vivid yet distant image of the singer’s escape. It’s an invitation to someone they care about, allowing them to take in the refuge they offer, promising to wait until this person feels ready. The strings come in to create an atmosphere of hope in gloom. Its climax is the heart-clenching key change that seems to change the nature of the song.
‘Hiraeth’, the final song on the album, is an instrumental that creates a sense of ambience wistful, windy, quiet, and peaceful, yet melancholic all the same. This ambient track seems to help listeners reflect and come back to centre.
All in all, ‘Lady on Arbor Hill’ by Madison Taylor takes its listener on a journey through moments and emotion. It’s an album that is articulate, transient and moving.
The Artist
Madison Taylor is a singer-songwriter born and raised in northern New Jersey, a place where sloping highlands meet valleys. Her love of the outdoors along with the melancholy of Celtic music, the authenticity of old country, and the emphasis on nature and emotion from the Romantic Era bear influence on her songwriting.
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Listen to ‘Lady on Arbor Hill’ here:
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