Is It Really Goodnight? A Witty and Heart-Wrenching Studio Debut from Celeste Madden

Peckham born and based singer-songwriter Celeste Madden has reintroduced her EP 'Is It Really Goodnight?' with a fresh coat of paint, elevating her voice and her pen with the help of strong live instrumentation.  

Peckham born and based musician/songwriter Celeste Madden faced an important decision once she bagged first record signing for Sad Club Records earlier this year. After her debut song  ‘Ghost’ becoming a breakout release in 2019, she kept the momentum going with a solid debut EP That’s Just Extraordinary, just a year later.

Celeste again didn’t slow down even in lockdown, producing another EP, with a more stripped down, lo-fi approach to its sound and lyrical content. This being, the original version of Is It Really Goodnight?. A few months down the line, it was removed from streaming completely. Now fast forward to the current month of march, the EP has been reintroduced with a fresh coat of paint, elevating her voice and her pen with the help of strong live instrumentation.  

When I asked about her decision to revisit her older work, the response was: “Tallulah, who runs Sad Club Records, encouraged me to re record and have the EP mixed professionally because she really believed that the songs could be even more impactful revisited, which I think is definitely the case. It’s quite difficult to tackle songs that are so honest and intimate because it almost feels like changing anything would undermine their importance to me, but Joseph Fútak, who produced the EP, just did such an incredible job of including me in the process and giving them a second life without taking anything away from the core of the music.”  

When originally diving into this EP, I was interested to see the evolution of the tracks alongside what remained. Gladly the intimacy is catapulted tenfold by its slight distortion in its live instrumentation, conjuring feelings of early works by Now, Now and Jay Som, but still with her own distinct edge. A track like ‘Fever dream’, a wholly acoustic track now transformed into a new wave shoe-gaze ballad, with the main element of guitar work still as prominent as it was 3 years ago. Yet, the drums and added flares only seek to refine what’s already golden. Like the original, it also has its share of quieter slower songs. Again, there’s such a distinct magic to these reworks. 'That’s My Boy’ is a frank confessional tune with a gradual progression in its melancholy that is ever so devastating, with her lyricism weighing on the strength of this new production perfectly. “Unfulfilled promises, It's always been you from the start.”  

Another main highlight is how genuinely witty and smart Celeste is with her songwriting and how she incorporates it into the structure of her songs. For example, the shining star of the EP being  ‘Millennium’, a track borrowing the same title from a prominent X-Files episode. As she croons into the second chorus, “You should know that I'm a bad omen, but our love isn’t a bad sign”, she asks them, “Or did I say it one too many times?”. This subtlety witty line has such a pang of heartache to it, describing that feeling of being too much for the people that you love.  

‘Nightly Routine’ is the most straight forward rework here, but with an interesting second take for Celeste to almost look back through the feelings of being in a global lockdown. It still captures the  maddening mundanity of being trapped in your home, relying on some sort of routine to keep  going. Lastly is ‘Lapdog’, a country tinged dream pop track inspired by outgrowing old friends and their toxic patterns. Its delicate, sparse and impactful in all the right places. Its gentle twangs of guitar, the muted Drums complimenting the layered vocal work. Joseph Fùtak’s production further allows Celeste to shine through these dreamy soundscapes, while still retaining the scrappiness of the original workings.

Overall this EP to me reads as an artist recognising the potential and having the belief in themselves to reimagine old work in ways not originally possible. In a music landscape where artists like Mk.Gee are declaring any work before their debut album as a practice run, its refreshing to see an old dog be taught new tricks. A deeply thought out and stunning collection of tracks from an artist that is, very clearly going to be someone to watch in the coming years. 

Check out the EP below.