What happens when we don’t just allow, but actively encourage technology to access the innermost workings of your mind? What happens when you realise that it has its hooks so deep into you that even when you want to turn away, you can’t help but return? And what happens when it starts feeling like the algorithms you feed know you better than the people that you surround yourself with?
Madeline Rosene’s Love and Algorhythms explores this feeling with a delicate balance of electronic-forward sound and gentle acoustics. Opening with robotic-like textures, Rosene’s voice floats in, light, airy, and unmistakably human; as the mild instrumentals come in, laying soft under her voice, it’s like they’re slowly filling up space, pushing out anything that isn’t analogue and completely in touch with reality. “The algorithm gets you better than I do,” she sings, with pain and anger simmering beneath the surface, never overflowing and becoming overwhelming. The entire track feels grounded enough to touch – a firm rebellion against the mass-produced, generic, hollow “art” that sucks you in and slowly eats away at you.
The track blends acoustic indie-pop subtleties with nostalgic, melancholic undercurrents, leaving you with a sense of emptiness as you internalise what she’s saying. It’s a constant push and pull between being angry and being sad in the atmospheric space created by the music. A slap in the face that serves as a reminder to wake up and value the moments around you rather than the ones that live behind your screen, it’s the perfect showcase of how unique human-made moments, no matter how messy or chaotic, will always be heartwarming and important. Listen here!