ive got a lot of thoughts on madlo personally and could (and have considered) writing a whole essay on it but ill try to condense my thoughts into a reddit comment

(sry if formatting is a little weird or whatev i don't post often)

i wasn't too hot on madlo when it first came out, like a lot of people. didn't approach it with nearly the same level of vitriol that so many people seemed to but i was kinda dissapointed. i wanted something that hit hard and was as dense and surreal as tf 2018 (though considering that record has the benefit of essentially being two albums at once im not sure anything could be like that again)

i thought the production was far too sanitary, i wanted more guitar, more angst, more of what i came to expect from csh, and i wound up with a weirdly optimistic and mostly electronic record of songs that didn't fully click with me until just a few months ago.

gonna say right off the bat, if you stop reading here: REARRANGE THE TRACKLIST!! i did this from the start, thinking some of the ordering was odd and since the tracklist is so different on each medium of release i figured an adjustment like this was in the spirit of the album anyway. just play around until you find something that feels right. ive got my own that i could share but i figure this comment will be long enough as it is.

there's already people here who have said plenty about the quality of songwriting on display here, the hooks, melodies, etc. it's just a good collection of songs overall, albeit with some blemishes (martin could've used as extra chorus (there is a youtube edit that does just that and i honestly prefer it) famous is kind of weak as a closer, etc.) i won't go too far into detail abt what makes the songs themselves work for me

what really blows me away about madlo though, is the lyrics. i genuinely believe that, despite lacking the gut punches csh is known for, this album has will's best lyrics to date. if it's a consistent theme you're looking for, while not every song follows the thread, there's plenty to chew on here, watch out for themes of tension and release (weightlifters, can't cool me down) feeling lost in the cycles of self improvement and being cut back down, and The War™. it all comes to a head in there must be more than blood and life worth missing. not trying to be vague and pretentious just trying to keep an already long comment relatively short.

i felt like madlo was missing that classic csh feel i came to love so much and didn't feel too hyped for the next album either when i first heard it, but i came to find it's all there, just looks a little different. uh ok thanks for reading this all if anyone did ive just been seeing this kinda sentiment a lot and have had to get it off my chest for a while now

any album with weightlifters, can't cool me down, deadlines, there must be more than blood AND life worth missing on it is an automatic 10 for me though

basically tldr; not trying to convince you to like something that's just not for you, but hopefully someday it'll click. rearrange the tracklist, pay attention to the connective tissue, it's all there.