Listen: Me Plus You — Madam Bandit

Following on from Madam Bandit’s previous songs, including Lie To Me, which I featured back in October, comes Me Plus You. Timed to coincide with Valentine’s Day, Me Plus You is every bit as besotted as Lie To Me, but it depicts a relationship at a much earlier phase, and through an altogether more hopeful lens.

Where Lie To Me was a song filled with a desperate need for a suspension of disbelief, Me Plus You is about the experience of discovering someone who helps you discover yourself. With playful lyrics that talk to rocket science, calculations, and pi, the song feels like someone marvelling at the weird-yet-universal experience that it is to fall in love. It happens to us individuals in a way that is uniquely personal, and yet almost everyone experiences it. Science and chemistry and (just maybe) a touch of magic come together to create this incredible feeling.

Madam Bandit’s vocals teeter on the edge of naïveté, and yet the abject infatuation makes them irresistible all the same. The musical production applied to Me Plus You only adds to the feeling of drama, with warm chords, snappy drums and harp-like synth melodies. It all comes together to create the perfect soundtrack to giving into your more romantic side, and losing yourself in the thoughts of that special someone.

Listen: Lie To Me — Madam Bandit

Hailing from a big family, Madam Bandit grew up as the eighth of nine children. Both music and religion were big factors in her upbringing, with a family that were devout members of an early American Christian cult, and music was as a cornerstone of family life.

As she grew up, Madam Bandit was married in her teenage years, and was encouraged to prioritise raising a family. Whilst she felt a dissonance between what she was told to pursue and her desire to make music, she resolved to pursue both. By the age of 22, she had two sons and was already recording her first album.

Madam Bandit’s ambition led to her releasing multiple successful albums under her given name, Mindy Gledhill, and saw her notoriety grow, bringing significant audiences on streaming platforms, and exposure through advertising and TV shows. Following a period of faith deconstruction, Gledhill has transitioned into Madam Bandit, her electronic pop alter-ego.

Crystalline vocals and minimal production open Madam Bandit’s Lie To Me, the song’s vocal starkly set against a backing of simple chords and a simple rhythm focused on the off-beat. Gradually the song thaws… the vocal shaking its cold, reverb-immersed sound as we reach the first chorus. Madam Bandit pleads for the listener to offer her reassurance, even if it is just a lie.

The beauty of Lie To Me is how it gradually constructs itself around audience. As the performance is embellished with additional details — more percussive detail, guitar melodies and warm bass — Madam Bandit creates a world that feels like the lie that gets bigger, until you no longer know quite what’s real.