Maisie Peters - The Good Witch

by Zena Grieg

published: 30 / 8 / 2023

Label: Atlantic
Format: CD

Accomplished combination of catchy electronics and punky pop on second album from West Sussex singer-songwriter Maisie Peters

Review

West Sussex singer-songwriter Maisie Peters, signed up to Ed Sheeran’s Gingerbread Man record label, has brought out her second album, the follow-up to her 2021 debut album ‘You Signed Up For This’. ‘The Good Witch’ is a mix of catchy electronics and punky pop, interspersed with splashes of sardonic humour and lyrical introspection. Written over the last year, the new record is “about being the good witch and deciding to use your power for good, not evil”. Highlights of this fifteen-track collection include: the insinuating pop title track opener with its layered snatches of conversation; the upbeat ode to empowerment ‘Coming Of Age’ with its insidious electronic beat and mocking lyrics: “Baby, I’m the Iliad, of course you couldn’t read me”; the nostalgic, plaintive ‘Want You Back’; country-tinged ‘The Band And I’; the anthemic ‘Lost The Breakup’ with its reclaiming power spoken word interlude and euphoric refrain: “And, oh shit, you lost the breakup”; the reflective Peter-Pan inspired ‘Wendy’, debunking a fairy tale; the melodic ballad ‘Two Weeks Ago’ with its raw, emotive vocals; ‘BSC’ with its in your face lines: “Broke me big time/It’s funny and I’m laughing baby/You think I’m alright/But I’m actually bloody motherfucking batshit crazy” and underlying resilience: “I can write you out the way I wrote you in”; the moody, atmospheric ‘Therapy’; and the powerful closer, inspired by Greek mythology, the stripped back ‘History Of Man’ with its acerbic lyrics: “The men start wars yet Troy hates Helen/Women’s hearts are lethal weapons/Did you hold mine and feel threatened?/Hear my lyrics, taste my venom”. Accomplished, idiosyncratic, ‘The Good Witch’ is an exciting precursor of what is still to come from this engaging and sonically exciting musician

Track Listing:-

1 The Good Witch
2 Coming Of Age
3 Watch
4 Body Better
5 Want You Back
6 The Band And I
7 You're Just A Boy (And I'm Kinda The Man)
8 Lost The Breakup
9 Wendy
10 Run
11 Two Weeks Ago
12 BSC
13 Therapy
14 There It Goes
15 History Of Man