Whether it’s the newly platinum tresses or the bubblegum production shimmer that make up Maisie Peters’ sophomore record, The Good Witch has a definite nod to The Wizard of Oz’s Glinda. Unlike that Good Witch of the North though, Peters’ career didn’t just pop off like a bubble. Still only 23 years old, Peters has actually been crafting songs for over a decade now.
The West Sussex-born songwriter tested her craft in her teens busking on the streets of Brighton. Her stardust didn’t go unnoticed with chart-topper and MBE Ed Sheeran (perhaps, the Wizard of this story) signing Peters to his label, Gingerbread Man Records, to release debut You Signed Up For This in 2021.
Two years on and it’s clear Peters’ hasn’t lost her knack for a great pop song. Lead single “Body Better”, despite its breezy Eighties synths, is a cruel retelling of unrequited love as she posits: “The worst way to love somebody is to watch them love someone else.” “The Band and I” is a sun-kissed, First Aid Kit-feeling, love letter to life on the road hailing everything from the midnight stops at border control to living in the Little Rock laundry room. After all, as she admits, “It was a far-flung dream when we were young /Now we’re living the dream, I hope we never wake up.”
But it’s in her bright and brilliant rage that Peters truly dazzles. “Watch” muses over a former lover taking a road trip into the mountains that “looked like a film that Michael Cera would act in and felt like a face slap.” While “BSC” dishes out shimmery cymbals in rhythm to her endearing frustrations as she delivers a sure-fire singalong one-liner with blatant hysteria: “It’s funny and I’m laughing, baby / You think I’m alright but I’m actually bloody motherfucking bat shit crazy.”
The irony, of course, is that The Good Witch positions her right up there with the genius pop makers. Artists like the Gingerbread Man who took a chance on that debut and will watch her selling out stadiums alongside him if standout “Run” is anything to go by, with Reputation-era Taylor Swift in the mix alongside the impossible stomp of Santigold’s “Go”. Spellbinding magic.
Below: Watch the video for "Lost the Breakup" by Maisie Peters
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