Midwife

We’re gonna play fast and loose with the term “metal” here this month. Midwife, the solo project of Madeline Johnston — now based in New Mexico after relocating from Denver during the pandemic — plays what she calls “heaven metal,” a self-coined term that’s a hazy yet quite charged take on solo downer pop. It’s a term where the contrast between lightness and crushing weight, between the unreachable and the all too real, might seem cheeky at first. How sonically metal it is? Up for debate. And frankly, the last thing we need is another debate on what is or isn’t metal. How heavy on the spirit it is? Zero question. Ungodly heavy. It’s an emotional apocalypse. Last year, Johnston released Forever, a gripping look at how grief manifests, built on glimmering ambient and fuzzy guitar outbursts. ...