The Lead Sheet ~ 10/14/2025

The Lead Sheet is your guide to this week’s new music - taking a look at newly released albums, who made them, and how listeners are responding. 

Singer-songwriter Madison Cunningham released her new album, Ace on Friday. Cunningham is known for her guitar-driven, folk-pop sound and authentic lyricism, and Ace continues her discography with the reclaiming of her identity – in the singer’s words, the new record follows a divorce and lengthy period of writer's block, during which personal exploration and investigation has given her a “hard reset”. While Cunningham’s previous work heavily features her skillful guitar-playing, Ace also sees her shift to the piano, a wider-ranged instrument. 

Listeners are rating the new work highly, appreciating Ace’s use of jazz-chords, folk rock and an excellent duet featuring Robin Pecknold from Fleet Foxes. Madison Cunningham is currently on tour in the US through January 25, 2026.

The Marias front woman Maria Zardoya’s solo project, Not For Radio, debuted this week with its first LP, Melt. Reviews are excellent; fans and critics are enjoying Melt’s darker tone, and praise the album’s intimately confessional voice. In composing Melt, Zardoya used a technique to provoke change, similar to Radiohead’s development of Kid A, isolating herself in the frozen woods of upstate New York. Zardoya also called in The Marias production alums Luca Buccellati and Sam Evian to collaborate and the result is a nostalgic, trip-hoppy flavor, like the Marias, but more sedated and contemplative. The Los Angeles based group is still very much a unit, with the band submitting in several categories for Grammy nomination in 2026. 

Jerskin Fendrix, songwriter, DJ, music producer and film score composer has exploded in popularity, thanks to his Oscar-nominated work in collaboration with director Yorgos Lanthimos on the films Poor Things and Kinds of Kindness. The young musician is an expert in evoking emotion through song composition, carefully crafting haunting melodies and moving themes. His new album, Once Upon a Time…In Shropshire is a personal reflection on being raised in rural England, and examines the topic of death with nuance and levity. In Shropshire is getting fantastic reviews, despite its, in Fendrix’s words, "embarrassing" vocals. The album is his second, after the 2020 debut project Winterreise.

Indie Folk star Madi Diaz has a new album out this week, titled Fatal Optimist. The new record is her seventh LP to date, and is the final chapter in her “Heartache Trilogy”, which also comprises her albums Weird Faith and History of a Feeling. Fatal Optimist is an intimate observation on emotions like grief, love, and heartbreak, with every song being a solo guitar piece, save the title track, also called Fatal Optimist, which features a full band. Madi’s “fatal optimism” is a philosophy she has embraced; conceding to embrace life and love, fully accepting that heartbreaks are almost always inevitable. Critics rate the album quite highly, finding it poignant, authentic and inspirational.

Musical savant and social media sensation Jacob Collier, known for his unique takes on music theory, has a new LP out this week, The Light for Days. Collier’s rise to popularity can be attributed to several viral videos of the young composer “playing the audience” as an instrument, assigning them pitches to sing and pointing to them to cue them to harmonize with other sections. Overnight, Collier’s reach was astounding, and his influence has permeated tiktok and instagram reels, culminating recently in a tour with Coldplay. The seven-time Grammy winner’s new album The Light for Days is getting critical acclaim, with many acknowledging Collier’s maturation, and heightened nuance on the new record. Light For Days is entirely focused on the guitar; Collier experiments with unique tunings and instrumentations, stripping back from the maximalist Djesse projects that came prior. Collier will wrap up the US leg of his current world tour on October 27th.

Madison Cunningham - Ace

Released October 10

Verve Forcast

Not For Radio - Melt

Released October 10

Atlantic Records

Jerskin Fendrix - Once Upon a Time… In Shropshire

Released October 10

Untitled

Madi Diaz -Fatal Optimist

Released October 10

Anti-Records

Jacob Collier - The Light for days

Released October 10

Hajanga, Interscope