Pop music gets a bad name, and it isn’t always that hard to see why, especially in this age where style outranks substance and marketing is more important than melody. But pop music doesn’t have to settle for less; it doesn’t have to play into the hands of the record company’s master plans. How do I know? Well, I have just listened to “Be Alone,” the latest release from Madeline Rhodes.
I will clarify by saying that although I have labelled this deft, delicious dream-state song as belonging to the pop world, it is better than that, especially considering what the rest of the pop pack sounds like. “Be Alone” can be considered pop, but only if you acknowledge that it is pop that pulls in dream-pop strands and ambient vibes, delicate dance beats, and a beguiling digital soundscape and bends them to its creative will.
Lyrically, too, it is way beyond its competitors’ usual shallow sentiments and hollow thoughts, speaking as it does in deep, resonant, relatable, soul-searching, and occasionally startlingly blunt language.
It is perhaps telling that it is only in the present age that I would devote a large part of this review to discussing whether the song in question is actually pop or not. In a previous era, we would have accepted that pop takes many forms and, at its best, is far from the simple, throwaway, mainstream songs that ebb and flow on the fickle winds of fad and fashion.
Perhaps songs such as “Be Alone” are exactly what we need to remind us of how deft, delicate, and decisive pop used to be. Perhaps they are exactly what we need to usher in such an age again. Wouldn’t that be something?
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