From its first notes, Madeline Edwards’ Crashlanded announces itself as something from outside this contemporary country world. The album’s bold artwork seems to suggest a merging of Western and celestial aesthetics, and the title track follows suit: While country through and through, “Crashlanded” boasts a subtly spacey arrangement and the loaded line “I never thought that I would be an alien on my own planet.” Elsewhere on the LP, Edwards explores unconditional love (the excellent “Heavy,” which offers a far more nuanced take on long-term love than most country songs), laughing off her critics (the delightful and clever “Mama, Dolly, Jesus”) and learning to savor the sweet moments in life (“Too Much of a Good Thing”). “This is going to be a lot different than what people are used to hearing, especially in country music,” Edwards tells Apple Music. “The themes are very different and unique. The styles and the music are very different and unique, but it’s still very true to country. It’s still very true to rock and soul. And I want people to feel really seen and heard when they listen to this—that I’m not only telling my story but I’m helping empathize with the listener as well.” Below, Edwards walks Apple Music through several key tracks on Crashlanded. “Crashlanded” “Post-COVID—and I feel like everyone else is kind of feeling this as well—I feel like time has sped up and slowed down. I feel like we all feel disconnected and have this massive yearning to feel connected to other people but don’t know how to go about doing it. I feel like social media has been so polarizing that it makes us enemies to each other when, really, we all are just trying to do the right thing and probably all just trying to learn how to empathize better. But we don’t know how to do that.” “Mama, Dolly, Jesus” “I get a lot of criticism being a woman in the industry, being a Black woman in the industry, being a Christian woman in the industry. And so, I feel like with this song, I wanted it to basically be like, ‘These are the people [my mama, Dolly Parton, and Jesus]. I care about their opinions the most, and everything else is going to roll off my back because I’m very confident in who I am. It’s taken me a very long time to get to this place and to be super confident in who I am as a woman and what I can do in this society.” “The Wolves” “I get a lot of DMs all the time and people messaging me or emailing me or whatever, just saying, ‘This song is so inspiring. I’m a mom of five, and I’ve had a really hard time losing weight after my last pregnancy. And I put on this song every morning when I work out, and it just pumps me up for the entire day.’ Or I have people reach out to me and be like, ‘You know what? I’m really battling depression, and I put on this song, and it just makes me feel like I want to go take on the world.’ And it’s just super encouraging to hear that because that’s what that song does for me, too.” “Heavy” “‘Heavy’ is interesting because I feel like it could apply to any situation, not just a partner or a spouse. It could even just be your sibling or a friend that you know is going through a really hard time, that just lost a parent or someone who had a miscarriage or whatever that looks like. I feel like this song is a letter to this person that you really love, saying, ‘Hey, you can take all of this off when you get home’ or ‘You can take all of this off when you’re with me, and I’ll hold it for you. I can’t take this pain away, but I can hold it for you, and I want to try.’ And I feel like that’s such a deep message of love. I’ve had people do that for me in my life, and I feel like I wouldn’t be here if they hadn’t.”