Maybe life on Earth, with all its miniature, momentary deaths and rebirths, has something to do with the astrological signs we were born under. Singer-songwriter Madison McFerrin thinks so. Her sophomore album, SCORPIO, takes its name from her sun sign with its three phases (scorpion, eagle, and phoenix) which coincidentally parallel her personal transformation in the years since her 2023 debut, I Hope You can Forgive Me.
The confident, fearless, and unapologetic woman you hear on SCORPIO was born from the ashes of heartbreak and a toxic relationship. After eight and half years of fighting for their love, Madison’s relationship with her then fiancé/manager had soured beyond repair, which meant she had to end a life partnership, dissolve a business relationship, and cancel a wedding. “We was ‘posed to get married today/ instead I’m here, all alone/ in a home/ with no one to call my own/ got me wonderin’ did I make a mistake in choosing who to/ say ‘I do’ to,” Madison sings on the revelatory “I Don’t”. In the song, she conveys a feeling that’s somewhere between sadness and the thrill of liberation. It’s a chromatic, multi-textured moment whose conflicting emotions give the songwriting a depth of reality — it resonates because if you ever loved and lost you’ve felt this way. There are moments like this throughout SCORPIO.
On “Run It Back”, she paints a vivid picture of post-breakup lust, when the impulse to spin the block for carnal reasons is strong: “Do you think about the sex just a little … /Thinkin’ ‘bout your hands up on my waist/ we can run it back non-committal/ you shouldn’t let this good-good go to waste,” she coos, tapping into her inner seductress. But thoughts of backsliding — if even for only a night — aren’t as loud as the inner voice screaming at her to let go and move on. The piano-driven “Lesson” floats in like a dream and evokes the sweet melancholy of a relationship dying so that the person in it can be reborn in the aftermath. “I remember crying while I was writing that song,” she says. “I think the biggest lesson for me was that if it doesn't feel right, it's not.” “The End,” the aptly titled last full song on the album, is a musical Dear John letter punctuated by the line, “I hope you’re lonely in the end …” It’s closure with a little sting for good measure. “ I actually started writing “The End” while we were still together, she says. “I don't wish for anyone to be lonely in the end, but it was one of those moments of truly just speaking what was clearly deep inside of me and feeling very repressed. My artistry allows me to express my truest self, that's for sure.”
For Madison, love — specifically self-love — is a teacher, a revealer of truths. It’s this album’s inspiration and, ultimately, her savior. “ I went through what I went through to emerge on the other side of it of a better person and to find love,” she confides. I truly believe that I went through it because I've created art that's going to change my life.” SCORPIO is what it sounds like when the stars align.
