Local Review: The Madeline — Peaceful Uncertainty / With Senses Wide Open

The Madeline
Peaceful Uncertainty / With Senses Wide Open
Pleasure Tapes / Candlepin Records
Street: 07.21.2025
The Madeline = Godspeed You! Black Emperor + Songs: Ohia

The Madeline has finally released their debut album Peaceful Uncertainty / With Senses Wide Open, after two singles and a year of waiting. The band has also come up with a new genre name for this album: “cathedral gaze.” Architecture and religion degrees are not required to experience what goes on with this album. The Madeline mixes post-rock, folk and noise together to take you on an out-of-body experience while channeling nostalgia, melancholy and sublime bliss.

What started as a solo project for B Zitting and a debut single of “Michael’s Song” last year has now grown into a five-piece band with Emmett Crofoot on bass, Jack Relyea on lead guitar, Will Wagstaff on keys and Sam Jessing on drums. While Zitting created a strong blueprint off that original single, the extra power of each member adds depth and detailing that make the group’s grand walls of sound into soaring arches and vaults that make you get lost before grounding you back down with intimate playing and detailing. 

“Dissolve” has already been covered before as a lead single by SLUG, and the rest of the album fully delivers on what this single sets up. Zitting’s layered and echoing vocals combine with the acoustic guitar to ease your soul before firing up into a screaming rage as the drums rip apart and the guitar turns into white-hot raging fire. “Sulphur” features a few more complex riffs akin to something you could hear off an Modern Baseball track, but with a layer of dread that makes it all unsettling. Zitting’s vocals are distorted to the point they lose definition for the benefit of a ghostly choir hovering over the track.

“The Definition (Lark)” strums in with a faint acoustic melody before the electronic guitar and Zitting’s faint vocals lift you into the nighttime above. Acoustic strumming and a soothing chant bring memories of campfires before static creeps in disturbing the calm of the night. It ends when the band explodes in a frenzy leaving the sound of a burning fire in their wake. “Peaceful Uncertainty” takes us away on a blissful ride, with a carousel tune playing through speakers as you catch your breath and unwind a bit. Even that begins to warp and fade though, as a pipe organ takes over and closes the song out on a dreary note.

Wandering through the wreckage of the past songs, “Greenhouse” is a slow piece akin to Jason Molina’s Protection Songs as the band slowly rebuilds starting with a thick guitar and bass then the drums gain more and more of the kit before the electric guitar strolls in and completes the piece. Zitting descends in and comes into focus before everything cuts off leaving just a wandering drone tone. “Eros (Moon Song)” is a towering song and a bit hard to sit through with the noise and distortion turned up to their max while the acoustic guitar strums away frantically and Zitting ekes out a very muddled quiet prayer. After a strenuous first half, the acoustic guitar is left with chattering static that warps into the drums and the rest of the band. 

The Madeline closes out the sermon on “With Senses Wide Open,” a sweeping piece of guitar and drums with no distinct melody or rhythm — static radio chatter is your only through line before everything fades out at the end. With the final piece done, The Madeline have created a piece that is fitting of the term cathedral gaze. From immense walls of sound and distortion to personal moments with each instrument, Peaceful Uncertainty / With Senses Wide Open reaches for the soul and leaves you that there may be some greater presence or experience beyond what you can comprehend by yourself. —Connor Kraus

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