Madison Rose is a pop artist who builds worlds out of sound. Where many approach pop as formula, she treats it as a space for staging color, chaos, and identity in equal measure. Her debut Technicolor (2022) introduced her as a maximalist voice unafraid of queerness, vulnerability, or spectacle, closing in a dreamlike haze. Monochrome, its 21-track follow-up, begins with awakening. Three voices: depression, mania, and the inner child, call the narrator to ascend, confront, and integrate.

Rather than aiming for neat resolution, Monochrome leans into the sprawl. It treats every jagged edge as essential and insists that pop can mirror the psyche in all its contradictions without collapsing under the weight.

Photography by Jen Trahan

Below, Madison Rose offers a track-by-track journey through the voices and visions that shape the album.

1. PEARLY GATES

At the end of my debut album, Technicolor, I was left in a dream state. The opening of Monochrome sees me experiencing the sonic ascension to heaven to meet my guides. I’m being woken up by the three voices: My depression, my mania and my inner child. I leave it to the listener to decide if this is literal waking up or simply me being asked to have “an awakening.” 

2. MIRACLES

I awake frustrated and confused as to how I see the path of my life so clearly, but it hasn’t actualized. l am circling the same trivial pursuits and still haven’t gotten a grip on my bipolarity. I know a light has been put inside of me, but seemingly it’s dashed at every turn. At this point, I have no will to continue and scream into the heavens that I need a miracle. My guides respond to trust in the unseen and learn to appreciate the parts of myself that I try to hide. Supersonic, the robot that controls the depressive side of my brain, comes in to speak for me. I gained a deeper love for myself when I came to appreciate my depression. Often with bipolar folks, we are made to feel mania is the best part of our personality — but all parts that make me “me” are the best parts of me. My bipolarity is my superpower in all its forms. 

3. SUPERSONIC

This is Supersonic’s theme song — a tongue-in-cheek view at the effects of depression and an ode to how I put on a brave, positive face while working through an episode. I wanted something very bouncy outwardly, but with deep lyrical meaning as a metaphor to the smile I’ve forced many times to get through the darker days. 

4. DAYDREAMING

Another trait of my mental illness: limerence, which is more than a crush, it’s an involuntary fixation on another person. In “Daydreaming,” I start to analyze why my brain functions the way it does. How can I live inside this brain of mine? Can I make heaven on earth rather than in my mind? Pop music is my healing force, so I’m always looking to tackle more serious subjects in the most fun way possible. 

5. ONLY HUMAN

I wanted a song that looks into the generational traumas that influence who we are, but also provide something for us to grow from. We’re sold this idea that our parents are superheroes — but they are in fact just people, doing life for the first time like we are. I wanted to speak to the human parts of my parents and have that juxtapose the feeling I often have of being other in my family — an alien or, in my case, a robot with bugs in its system.

6. LOVE PRISM (ENTR’REFRACTE)

This is the moment in Monochrome where I realize that all the colors rattling around in my brain are what makes me special. “Monochrome” is a brilliant word as it holds two definitions: Black and white, and simultaneously all one color. I wanted a song that sonically captured the kaleidoscope that is my mind and understanding that I exist between these two planes at all times. “Love Prism” is also meant to emulate a night out: the come up, the peak and come down. I found so much understanding and healing of the black and whites of my brain, and the black and whites of a “straight” life when I started going out and experiencing the technicolor of queerness and nightlife.

7. SUGAR TANK

I wanted to reclaim a phrase that was once hurled as an insult to queer folks and make it something we could bop at the cookout too. It’s our party, I’ve got some sugar in my tank and so do you.

8. TWA

A cheeky interlude to alert me: Supersonic (my depression) can’t be the only one leading. Slaybot (my mania) is here to co-pilot the system and blend into this fully accepted version of me. I’ve also always been obsessed with how empires are built. How, for example, Virgin has multiple different branches of business. That’s the world I wanted to create for these two robogirls in my mind. They work at TWA (Technicolor Worldwide Alliance) — but the branches are endless: Technicolor Worldwide Airways, Airwaves, Airmobile. They control all the frequencies coming in and out of my brain.

9. PANAVISION

This is “Sugar Tank’s” rock counterpart and also me finally putting a name to my sexual identity. When I found the term “pansexual”, it felt right and all-encompassing. When I wrote this song, I was blasting Daft Punk’s Alive 2007 on repeat and was wildly inspired by the sonic choices, specifically in “Television Rules The Nation/Crescendolls.” This led to me writing “Panavision” over this track before it was produced. I kept thinking, I see the world through a Pansexual lens… Panavision! The synchronicity of Panavision being the famous camera system was a heavenly bonus. 

10. SINNERS

Growing up as a Jehovah’s Witness, I experienced a lot of judgement at the hands of people who swore they practiced unconditional love. My mother was essentially excommunicated when her congregation found out she was pregnant out of wedlock, though she got married. I had such a marred sense of what community meant until I found the right one. When I found my tribe of queers, nightlife freaks and artists, I found what real community means. If these are the Sinners, then let me be a Sinner. 

11. RAMONA

I had a very profound sapphic experience with a person named Ramona that changed my understanding of sexuality forever. It made me feel more whole and loving of myself as a woman. But also, she was just really fucking hot, and hot woman deserve songs written about them how old rock dudes used to do. 

12. GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS

Again, hot women deserve rock-pop. I always imagined this song being a duet with Ramona and I. Our energies are intertwining on this and I am being inspired to be the Femme Fatale that she is. 

13. ATOMIC BLONDE

The experiences with women that I had inspired me to find my own divine fem, and be wildly proud and bombastic about it. Owning your sexuality as a woman is the most powerful thing you can do, since society attempts to strip us of that autonomy constantly. 

14. RED LIPSTICK

Sometimes you’re feeling like a succubus and I wanted to talk my shit with red lipstick on. It’s my trademark. I also wanted a hard juxtaposition of this sexy, “crawling-all-over-you” song that drops into this hard trap rap boss bitch moment —my use of sexuality, my “red lipstick” is at my discretion. I can kiss you or kick your ass depending on how I feel at that moment. 

15. FULLY CHARGED

I’ve been put through the wringer to get where I am and it’s taken a lot to not quit. And when I say quit, I don’t mean the industry — I mean life, period. I wanted a song for people to listen to on their hardest days and remember you have to stick it out. “Fully Charged” is also a metaphor for how I feel now that I’m medicated. I am able to be the best me now that I have a prescription regimen. I’ve harnessed my superpowers.

16. SHE’S THE ONE

Not the three nor the two — I’ve integrated all parts of myself and become the supreme, the mutha, the one. This is for the girls who turn concrete to a runway.

17. HAUS!

Now that I’m Mother of the House (my brain being the House), I can inspire others to be fluid and loud and “too much.” This is why I’ll always view my work through a pop lens — I love the muchness of pop and how it encourages people to explore their muchness when they listen.

18. PARADISE

The best island in the world is New York City. I found my paradise here and we dance all night. So I needed a summer never ending vibe for Monochrome.

19. FALLING OUTTA HEAVEN

Through understanding and loving myself, I have been able to accept a real love into my life that isn’t marred by limerence, or overshadowed by unprocessed traumas or mental illness — a true thing that has a chance to last. This entire album has truly been prophetic. I knew once I got a grip on myself I’d be able to welcome in the love of my life. I have found them and it is heaven on earth, but it had to come in divine time.

20. SUMMER REIGN

A brief interlude to reflect on my inner knowing through Donna Summer’s voice. I’ve known that I’d arrive at this utopia, but it was all about timing and acceptance. I often say, “I don’t have to agree with the timing of my life, but I must accept it.” The title is an ode to a dear friend of mine, of the same name. I feel she embodies who this record is for: a dreamer, an artist and a bad bitch who will not be told no. 

21. MONOCHROME (FINALE)

Monochrome is a place that once terrorized me, but it is now safe and my ideal life. I’m welcoming myself and everyone else. I’m obsessed with old musicals and wanted an ending that felt like it was plucked from The Wiz. I threw all sonic rules out of the window and we truly made a track that just feels good. It jams, it’s warm, it welcomes. So as we say goodbye to Monochrome, it’s never really goodbye. It’s also hello to a new beginning.

Stream Monochrome: The White Album in full, here. 

Photography by Jen Trahan