Good Music Monthly: July 2026

You know, despite what people think, this Substack isn’t just about ME, ME, ME.

We simply are here to build the audience, and then…

And one way we do that is through Good Music Monthly, where we highlight three songs that we simply cannot stop listening to at MAD Records.

We’ve partnered with Substack music reviewer, Chris Hedden, to spotlight three songs from members of our MAD Records Collective, and we’ve attached the songs below.

(By the way, if you aren’t already subscribed to Chris…. what are you doing!? He’s a genuinely good human, a fantastic music reviewer, and a key player in the growing music community here on Substack, so please show him some support by subscribing to his publication here.)

And if you want to submit your music for a chance to get featured on Good Music Monthly, you can upgrade to a paid Substack subscription here (you’ll also get access to our new paid newsletter, “How to Market Your Music … and still sleep at night”)

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So without further ado… I’ll send it over to Chris!

Enjoy!

Michael from MAD Records

(Reviews by Chris Hedden)

At first listen, Cole Ritter’s newest song “Born to Lose” feels like a slow dance under a full moon you might half-remember after waking up from a dream. The track initially burns with a whisper, fronted by the Nashville-based artist, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer murmuring at an equal pace. Ritter has the buildup skill of a group like Lord Huron or classic Band of Horses, in that he doesn’t show the full power of the hand of melodic cards he’s holding until he’s got you on the line and fully reeled in your attention.

“Born to Lose” unveils with an almost-tentative sense of self, borne on the back of instruments like drums and percussion, the softly brushed twang of pedal steel guitar, and piano work from Will Honaker that lives on the edges with sinuously elegant elusiveness. This creates a detached, emotional state of mind with Ritter on the reins, echoing the first part of a powerful story he relays on his Substack about the creation of “Born to Lose” that involves being consumed by existential crisis. The musician goes deeper and deeper down into this all-consuming well of pain, hurt, and fear, until the song’s guitar solo hits like the ripping roll of a freight train.

This represents Ritter’s utterly transformational moment of catharsis. A defining release that allows the artist to not only come to grips with the ache of darkness in himself, but to also find his breakthrough with a higher power of religion he struggled with for years that permitted so much “grief, anxiety, confusion, and fear” to let go. By the end, I can’t say that Ritter has reached a perfect place of every part of himself in well-oiled flow. But like so much of human kind, he’s fought the idea of being “Born to Lose,” took a few lumps in the fight, and came out better with scars of strength. The last moments of the song are where Ritter can breathe out a bit easier, hard-won control more firmly in tow.

Listen to “Born To Lose” here:

And to listen to more of Cole Ritter, subscribe to his Susbstack here.

Self-described “existential-indie-folker sharing songs and writing prompts!” Abigayle Oakley recently released a new EP called This Side of the Sun earlier last month. The release is frontlined by several standout moments including the track “Dandelion.” Similar to Ritter (who Oakley helped write co-write “Born to Lose”), the musician has an introspectively slow-burn country-folk approach to the arrangement of “Dandelion.” However, Oakley takes her own route on this song, lingering somewhere between the struggle of overwhelming power balanced against the seemingly simple task of wanting to cut the dandelions out of a lawn.

In theory, that might seem like a lightly weighted task. But when you truly boil such a matter down to the very roots (no pun intended), is there not such an overwhelming and dare I say terrifying thought to holding so much sway over the fate of another entity much lower on the food chain? Oakley takes a few light-hearted lyrical pokes at the matter (”If I mow them down, do I commit dandelion murder?”), but even that still contemplates the idea of holding the precious life of something else in your own hand. Or, (in this case), one power tool away.

What Oakley does so well is taking subjects that could be seen as simple as dandelions in a lawn and power imbalance in a worldly situation and it isn’t scientific or overly sappy in approach. Instead, the artist holds that classic ability of a country-folk singer to not only tell a tale, but to fill her voice with the depth and tonality it takes to make you as the listener believe in (and sympathize) with every word Oakley is singing. She could be vocalizing about indecision about every plant in a garden patch, and it would still hold me rapt at attention to know the emotional journey that goes in resolving her internal struggle. That’s the strength of a great weaver of tales like Oakley.

Listen to “Dandelion” here:

And to listen to more of Abigayle’s music, check out her Substack by clicking here.

Michigan-born, Nashville-based artist Zoe Ny typically describes her creative work as the type that “alchemises soul and folk-rock into ‘Soft Goth Americana’”. And while folk-rock undoubtedly takes the lead in Ny’s banjo’d, uptempo cover of The Temper Trap’s song “Sweet Disposition,” there’s also a certain type of soulful smoothness that adds extra velveteen crush into the instrumentation as well. And given our still-quite-recent period of folk music revival, it can be a difficult genre field to differentiate yourself in.

But Ny does this with ease, initially guided by a powerfully smooth voice that handles every rise, fall, and curve of “Sweet Disposition” without giving away any strain or issue with handling all the speeds that are necessary. In fact, I feel like the band backing her with guitars, banjo, and percussion could take the tempo further and with even greater reckless abandon as they seem ready to chew up the melodic scenery with ease. This is the type of take on a cover that completely molds it into Ny’s own.

No offense to The Temper Trap, but I hear this and my first thought is, what does their version even sound like again? That’s how well you can tell a cover song has been done, when an original can still emerge. And with Ny, this is the kind of dance-till-you-drop type of tempo that’s gonna make your disposition look at sweet well behind in the mirror. Just belt it out as high and as loud as you can, and (no matter how off-key you might be), enjoy every second of being caught up in that mental musical takeover of this goodness. Cause “Sweet Disposition” is some of the best.

Listen to “Sweet Disposition” (Cover) here:

And to listen to more of Zoe Nye, check out her Substack by clicking here.

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See you next month!

- The MAD Records Team

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