Ace (Madison Cunningham album)

Last updated
Ace
Madison Cunningham Ace.jpeg
Studio album by
ReleasedOctober 10, 2025
Length53:18
Label Verve Forecast
Producer
Madison Cunningham chronology
Cunningham Bird
(2024)
Ace
(2025)
Singles from Ace
  1. "My Full Name"
    Released: August 15, 2025
  2. "Wake"
    Released: September 12, 2025

Ace is the upcoming third [a] studio album by American musician Madison Cunningham. It is set to be released on October 10, 2025, [1] through Verve Forecast Records. The album was produced by Cunningham alongside Robbie Lackritz. "My Full Name" was released as the album's lead single on August 15, 2025, followed by "Wake" (featuring Robin Pecknold of Fleet Foxes) on September 12. [2] [3]

Contents

Background

Ace will follow up Cunningham's collaboration with singer-songwriter Andrew Bird, Cunningham Bird (2024), which is a track-by-track cover of Buckingham Nicks (1973), as well as Cunningham's second studio album Revealer (2022), the latter of which won a Grammy Award for Best Folk Album. [4]

An official album "bio" for Ace states that the majority of the songs on the album were written in August 2024 following a period of writer's block, and deal with themes of heartbreak, betrayal, and falling in and out of love. [5] Additionally, Cunningham described the album as "the first record that's ever felt like mine from start to finish. It was as light to make as its subject matter was heavy." [6] Cunningham performed much of the new material live throughout early 2025, before the album had been announced. [7]

Cunningham wrote "Wake" while in Nashville during a blizzard in January; the song stemmed from experimentation with a new alternate tuning on guitar. The final recording is a duet with Robin Pecknold of Fleet Foxes and also features prominent upright bass played by Daniel Rhine. [8] Cunningham described the track as a "song about reflection, about looking in the rearview mirror and seeing someone wasn't right for you all along." [9]

Reception

Lead single "My Full Name" was included on "best songs of the week" lists published by Consequence and Paste . Consequence called the song "as warm as it is sad", praising it as "delicate" and "absolutely lovely". [1] Writing for Paste, Camryn Teder praised the lyrics, calling them "as simultaneously sprawling and intimate as an ancient work of poetry", while declaring the song as a whole to be "swelling with heart and emotion". [10]

Track listing

All tracks are written by Madison Cunningham, except where noted.

Ace track listing [3]
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Shatter into Form I" 0:47
2."Shore" 5:31
3."Skeletree" 4:59
4."Mummy" 4:05
5."Take Two" 4:07
6."Wake" (feat. Fleet Foxes)
  • Cunningham
  • Will Taylor
4:17
7."Break the Jaw"
  • Cunningham
  • Kyle Crane
  • Philip Krohnengold
  • Daniel Rhine
4:07
8."Invisible Chalk" 3:28
9."Shatter into Form II" 0:52
10."My Full Name" 3:20
11."Golden Gate (On and On)"
  • Cunningham
  • Robbie Lackritz
  • Weber
3:33
12."Beyond That Moon" 3:56
13."Goodwill" 5:06
14."Best of Us"
  • Cunningham
  • Weber
5:10
Total length:53:18

Notes

  1. Ace is officially considered to be Cunningham's third studio album. However, it is her fourth if her since-deleted 2014 album Authenticity is included.

References

  1. 1 2 Consequence Staff (August 15, 2025). "Statf Picks: Best Tracks of the Week August 9th – August 15th". Consequence. Retrieved August 16, 2025.
  2. Deville, Chris (September 12, 2025). "Madison Cunningham – "Wake" (feat. Fleet Foxes)". Stereogum. Retrieved September 12, 2025.
  3. 1 2 Strauss, Matthew (September 12, 2025). "Listen to Madison Cunningham and Fleet Foxes' New Song "Wake"". Pitchfork. Retrieved September 12, 2025.
  4. "Watch Madison Cunningham Perform 'Life According To Raechel' At The Premiere Ceremony". Grammy Awards. Retrieved August 16, 2025.
  5. "'Ace' Bio". Madison Cunningham. Retrieved August 16, 2025.
  6. Armstrong, Sam (August 18, 2025). "Madison Cunningham Announces Third Album, 'Ace'". uDiscoverMusic. Retrieved August 18, 2025.
  7. Hawthorne, Katie (January 19, 2025). "Madison Cunningham review – complex new tunes from a folk singer with a knack for a twist". The Guardian. Retrieved August 16, 2025.
  8. Kahn, Andy (September 12, 2025). "Madison Cunningham Shares 'Wake' Single Featuring Fleet Foxes & Confirms 2026 Tour". Jambase. Retrieved September 14, 2025.
  9. Gregory, Allie (September 12, 2025). "Madison Cunningham Books North American Tour, Shares New Single with Fleet Foxes". Exclaim!. Retrieved September 14, 2025.
  10. Paste Staff (August 21, 2025). "Best New Songs (August 21, 2025)". Paste. Retrieved August 21, 2025.