‘This Is It’: A Review of Rising Kent Artist Lily Madison & Her Latest Single
What does it actually sound like to take an emotional risk.
Lily Madison’s ‘This Is It’, released 14th August, answers that question with more nuance than the premise might suggest.
Now that the track has had time to sit with listeners, what comes through most clearly is its refusal to resolve. Built from 90s soft rock reference points, The Sundays, The Cranberries and Fleetwood Mac chief among them, the song holds two possible outcomes in tension throughout, the relief of something going right, and the ache of something ending, without ever picking a side. That’s a difficult balance for any songwriter to strike, let alone a young one still early in her career.
“It means trying to become a risk taker after being scared of the unknown and the uncertain” - Lily Madison
The arrangement helps carry that ambiguity. Guitars, bass, drums and tambourine stay deliberately understated, giving the vocal and lyric room to sit at the centre rather than getting buried under production. It’s a choice that rewards repeat listening, the kind of restraint that becomes more apparent the more familiar the song becomes.
Lily has spoken about wanting her music to be a space for honesty above all else, and ‘This Is It’ bears that out. It’s not a song reaching for a hook or a moment, it’s one content to sit inside its own uncertainty. As a first proper introduction to an artist with an EP reportedly on the way, it’s a promising, unshowy statement, one that suggests Madison’s instincts are already sharper than her age might imply.
‘This Is It’ is out now.
Press Photo Credit: Sorin S.
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