_{By Trevor Myers}

In a review for another Madge record, I said Madge was the edgy hyperpop artist of your dreams. I stand by that statement. Madge released BOXJAR in November of 2023, and the album consists of 12 songs clocking in at just under 30 minutes. What is most impressive about this album is that, in such a short time, there is a pretty good number of featured artists — eight, to be exact — and some of those features are pretty big names. 

On BOXJAR, Madge has songs with Portugal. The Man (who have 9 million monthly listeners on Spotify and more than one billion streams on their 2017 smash-hit “Feel It Still”), girli (who has nearly 1 million monthly listeners), CMTEN (who has more than 320,000 monthly listeners) and carpetgarden (with almost 290,000 monthly listeners). The best-performing songs on BOXJAR are those with the big-name features, ranging from 180,000 plays to more than 630,000 at the time this review was written. 

BOXJAR also has songs featuring some artists who may not be as well-known (such as Lecx Stacy and HXSTAGE), so this entire album feels like a great way for all of the artists to get exposure to a wider, more diverse audience.

If I had to pick one word to describe Madge’s BOXJAR, I would say loud. Depending on who you ask, that can be a good thing or a bad thing, but in this case, I would say it’s a good thing. Is this sound for everyone? Probably not — but that’s OK. Madge still has an audience of more than 100,000 listeners.

BOXJAR has a few songs that toe the line between hyperpop and a heavier genre, with lots of loud guitar and vocals that are almost screams.

“MACROWAVE,” the first track, begins with guitar and slightly distorted bass under some harmonized vocals. It starts to ramp up, and it almost feels like waiting for the DJ to drop the beat at a club — but you’ll have to keep waiting, because it drops back to the slow vibes from the beginning. About halfway through “MACROWAVE,” listeners are launched into the stuttering, sped up sound that is most often associated with hyperpop. The drums toward the end of the track are a great addition, and Madge’s vocals grow increasingly louder as the track concludes with a chorus of noise.

“CNTTHROAT” is the second track and gives listeners about 30 seconds to mentally prepare for the inevitable sonic whiplash. It starts with some instrumentals that are almost lofi under carpetgarden’s vocals. Once the beat starts coming in, everything just gets faster and louder and things get crazy.

“GLASS TOYS” is one of the two songs featuring CMTEN, and it doesn’t get enough love, in my opinion. Across BOXJAR, the songs tend to have the featured artists get their spotlight, along with some more chill instrumentals, before Madge comes in with the big instruments and big vocals. Everything on this track works well together and it feels like a pretty classic sound that blends both artist’s styles.

“THUMBTAX” features girli and it is a bass-heavy, distorted track with some of the background vocals jumping between ears. This song has a false ending, with the vocals fading out almost completely before everything comes in even more intense. The sliding, heavy bass feels like some of Purity Ring’s older music.

“TRIPE” is the only song on the album that is longer than three minutes and is one of the five songs without a feature. This song is much slower compared to the other frantic, jumping tracks on the album, but it is still very much Madge, with intense, boosted instrumentals blasting through the quiet. 

“TALL GRASS,” which was released as a single the month before the album, features Portugal. The Man and is the most streamed song on BOXJAR. It is less intense than most of the other tracks and feels the most collaborative. Both artists sing together after having their solo time in the spotlight, and both artists bring their own flair to their parts. 

“PSYCHOPOMP” wraps up the record and feels like a satisfying conclusion to the album. It sort of feels like the type of song that would play at the end of a teenage movie from the early 2000s. The featured vocals from Jessica Winter work really well with the instruments. While the song is, of course, loud, it doesn’t feel like too much. It feels like a conclusive ending. 

While there is a lot of noise, and BOXJAR can get pretty loud and frenetic, there are still some songs that are more palatable for a wider audience, which is great for introducing more people to Madge and the other featured artists. Madge is a musical chameleon, adapting to any track and any feature with ease. Try to track how many different sounds are on BOXJAR alone, and you’ll see what I mean.

Make sure to follow Madge on Instagram. You can listen to “TALL GRASS” below.