If you have ever been remotely scorned by literally any man ever, then this album is for you.
Blossoming pop princess, Maisie Peters, released her second album, The Good Witch, on the 23rd of June this year and I think it’s fair to say that a spell is cast as soon as you listen to all 15 tracks (excluding the deluxe tracks released just last Friday). Peters enchants us for the whole 47 minutes with catchy singalong choruses and pop-synth beats, reminding me of the likes of Lorde and The 1975 at times. A healthy sprinkling of more folky, piano tunes mixed into the cauldron will be right up your street if you’re in the mood for something more low-key.
It’s her lyrics which really cement Peters as one to watch in the world of pop as she shows off a diaristic yet poetic lyricism and knack for vivid storytelling, only rivalled by Maisie’s biggest inspiration, Miss. Taylor Swift herself. If Taylor had a 2000s-born, bleach-blonde British sister – it would be Maisie Peters. Much like Taylor, she delves into themes of coming of age, love and loss. There’s heartbreak, but there’s also a biting, self-deprecating humour running throughout this album; Maisie never takes herself too seriously. She’s also said herself that it features some of her most “painfully honest” songs to date; she often sings openly about her own flaws (“still argue like my mother, suppress stuff like my dad” in the titular track) and her deep insecurities (“I can’t help thinking, has she got a better body, has she got a body better than mine?”) in heart-breaking yet upbeat and catchy track 4 Body Better, the album’s first single).
This album’s opening track is one of my favourites of all time – it starts off with a characteristically cheeky “still me here” and goes on to sonically set up the rest of the album as it builds to a sound montage of snippets of, presumably, her loved ones’ confessions (“I know this is, like, the worst drunk message” and “don’t go back to your toxic man”) and then rushes to an abrupt stop as we hear crowds faintly chanting her name. With this song Maisie perfectly welcomes us into this magical, whimsical coven that she has created with The Good Witch.
Maisie Peters became the youngest British female solo artist to bag Number 1 album spot in nearly a decade
A huge theme running throughout this album is one of reclaiming power after a breakup that feels all-encompassing; redefining your role in your own narrative, not giving all the story and magic to just a secondary character. This is perfectly captured in track 2 Coming Of Age where Maisie sings in this anthem of empowerment “I know I made you the big star, I let you butcher my big heart, but it’s my song and my stage, and it’s my coming of age”. Track 2 also features one of my favourite lyrics of all time that I think deserves a mention – I couldn’t go the whole article without appreciating the genius of “baby I am the Iliad, of course you couldn’t read me.” This theme of empowerment is picked up in track 7 You’re Just A Boy (And I’m Kinda The Man) (“Oh Mr. Bruce Wayne, where is that cape now?”) and again track 12 BSC (“I am both Kathy Bates and Stephen King, I can write you out the way I wrote you in”).
Track 3, Watch, is fuelled by the petty anger you feel fresh after a break up as you watch them move on infuriatingly quickly, made worse by the joys of modern technology which enable you to watch their every move as they seemingly forget all about your entire existence: “all I got are victim cards, and you got every single thing you want, and I just watch”. This one is impossible not to sing along to, with one of the catchiest choruses on the album and lyrics that are equal parts heartfelt (“and everybody pretends that they’re great, but what if you actually might be?”) and light-hearted (“you took a road trip into the mountains, I feel like all of my exes have done that”).
Track 5 Want You Back, following in Miss. Swift’s footsteps, has got to be the most crushing song on the album, detailing the pain we feel as we wait for our heart to catch up with our head, as we wait to stop loving someone who wasn’t right for us (“what was cheap to you, to me was all I had/ the issue is, I know all of this and I, I still want you back”). It’s a confession maybe we’ve not all been brave enough to admit, despite understanding all the ways they wronged you, knowing you would pick up in a heartbeat if they called (“so I don’t tell a soul that I’d be yours again tomorrow if you wanted.”) Peters perfectly captures the frustration and exasperation of being told over and over that they weren’t right and knowing they weren’t right, but not yet feeling they weren’t right (“yeah I know that you did bad, but if one more person says it I might go mad”), all to a slow tempo and soft piano backing.
Track 9 Wendy is a similarly slow-paced, forlorn track that plays on the untold story of Wendy from the tale of Peter Pan – a sensible girl who falls for a lost boy, determined to stay young and carefree forever. Maisie beautifully continues the metaphor throughout the song in lines such as “you could take me to Neverland baby, we could live off of magic and maybes”. She reminds us that before helping a lost boy find his way, we must take care of our own paths because “I could love you and wait til you’re ready, but what about my wings? What about Wendy?”.
The Good Witch’s second single, track 8, Lost The Breakup tells the story of the inevitable return of an ex once the universe sends them some kind of sign that you’re finally moving on. She draws moving parallels between his and her experiences after the breakup in the lines “so I’m feeling and I’m dealing with the heart you broke, while you do press ups and repress us and take off her clothes” and then celebrates her triumph and his loss as he says goodbye to “the best thing that almost happened to you”. Towards the end of the song is a theatrical, spoken section, sarcastic enough to rival that of Taylor Swift’s Shake It Off or We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together; “you’ll say, ‘wow, hey, it’s been forever, do you wanna get a drink, like together?”/ I say, ‘I’m kinda busy but, like, stay in touch?’/ I think, ‘oh, shit, I won the breakup’”.
Another side to heartbreak that Maisie explores in tongue in cheek track 10, Run, is pure, petty anger and disapproval of all and any possible future romance post-breakup. In this pure-pop, bitter ballad she warns “if he says he’s real, he’s not/ if he makes you smile, he’s blocked” which leads to the chorus starting with “if a man says that he wants you in his life forever (run!)”. This scathing resentment is also projected loud and clear in track 12, BSC, as she sings (though it feels more like a shout) “Mr. ‘I don’t want a label’, you made me little miss unstable”.
The penultimate track, There It Goes, is a song of acceptance and moving forward, never failing to give me goosebumps. She begins the story with “I’m back in London” and spins a tale of saying goodbye (“the love we had was covered in snow, I had to let it go, oh there it was, heaven knows, and there it goes”) and great change (“a new home, a swan dive, a blank page, a rewrite”, then “the comedown of closure, the girls and I do yoga, I wake up and it’s October, the loss is yours”). A hopeful song that ends the album head held high and looking forwards.
Alongside heartbreak, Peters explores the different shades of love and the magic of it. First, track 6, The Band And I, is a gorgeous homage to her friendships with her bandmates, with beautifully light-hearted storytelling reminiscing on their time on tour in America (“my drummer fell for a girl in a cookie shop/he said he’d make a move and then he went with ‘excuse me’”) and revelling in the magic of live music (“if we’re living the dream, I hope we never wake up”). Then, in the closing track, History Of Man, Maisie marvels at the universality of love and loss and their endless roles in the history of humanity in lines such as “tale as old as honey/ a moment everybody knows/ I’m sure there was heartbreak inside the walls of Jericho” and “I’ve seen it in the poems and the sands… I tried to rewrite it but I can’t, it’s the history of man.”
An album filled to the brim with fun and pain; a celebration of coming of age, loving, losing, changing and growing. I hope, with this deep dive into her masterful sophomore album, that I have been able to persuade you that The Good Witch is 100% worth a listen. Or two. Or seven.