Album Review: The Good Witch by Maisie Peters
She’s back, witches! British pop star Maisie Peters proves that she’s back and better than ever with her sophomore album, The Good Witch. The follow up to her debut album, You Signed Up For This, The Good Witch is more introspective and acts as a retrospection on Peters’ time on her first North American headline tour in 2022. With themes ranging from the emotional turmoil following a breakup to the importance of tried and true friends, The Good Witch has a song for every moment.
Title track ‘The Good Witch” serves as the perfect intro to the album and sees Peters reflecting on the past two years of her life, and how far she has come since then. A more mature older sister to her debut album’s opening track, she sings “Still me here, d’you think I forgot about you? / Still upset but now I’m 22,” which serves as a parallel to the lyrics “I am 20 and probably upset right now” from “You Signed Up For This.” These parallels continue into the final chorus with the line “Am I better yet?”, seeming to answer the chorus of the aforementioned “You Signed Up For This” that pleads “Please don’t give up on me yet / I know I’ll get better, I’m just not better yet.” Sonically, the track opens with a delicate (thematically appropriate) piano line, before picking up into the second verse and becoming a perfectly delightful sonic mixture that expertly walks the line between being light and upbeat; boldly ushering in the start of this new era.
“Coming Of Age” takes a complete left turn from what we have come to expect of Peters. An upbeat, dance pop track that features a sick, pulsing beat combining with retro sounding synth lines, “Coming Of Age” is a defiant act of Peters redefining her role in her own story. “Sometimes I give magic to people,” she explained to Apple Music. “I think they’re magic but, they’re not: I just wrote them that way [...] the song, to me, is about seeing that actually I was the magic.” Also described on Instagram as her ‘directorial debut,’ this metaphor is immediately present within the first few lines as she sings “You had the speaking parts, but I guess I was the playwright.” Proving once again to be a master of constructing bridges, Peters delivers some of the most impactful lines of the track in “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” before ending out the song as electric as it began: a triumphant, proud declaration of self.
With peak early 2000s Avril Lavigne vibes, “Watch” sees Peters pouring her heart out about watching someone completely move on from a relationship while you’re still hurting. She finds the humor in opening the track with “Telling the wide web that this is my era, then writing a lot of heartbroken music / Nobody actually happy and healthy, has ever felt so desperate to prove it,” explaining in her pre-release Instagram post that she “truly did tweet ‘in my reputation era’ and then proceed to write half a dozen songs about how sad and stupid [she] felt, which is deeply funny in hindsight.” Blending these heartfelt yet punchy lyrics with a pulsing bass line and catchy percussive section, “Watch” will have you screaming and crying along.
The first single of the The Good Witch era, “Body Better,” examines the insecurity and self esteem issues that accompany a relationship’s dissolution. A pivotal focus of this song is the comparison of an ex’s partner to you personally, explained by Peters to Glamour magazine, “Everything I felt insecure about, all the reasons I could imagine that he had decided he didn't want me, I now had a perfect example of someone who I could tell myself was the opposite.” These feelings are further explored through the chorus, with the lyrics “I can’t help thinking that she’s got a better body, has she got a body better than mine? / The worst way to love somebody is to watch them love somebody else.” This deeper meaning is hidden within a pure pop track with a catchy melody and punchy drumline, a staple of Peters’ music.
"Want You Back” is a light and airy track described by Peters in an Instagram post as being “about a time in my life when I would have given anything to have back what I’d lost, even though I knew it wasn't right, wasn’t possible, didn’t exist any longer”. The song is a reflection of this feeling, and knowing that despite the issues with the relationship, if the person called you up you would drop everything to answer. Peters sings “I know that you did bad, but if one more person says it, I might go mad [...] The issue is, I know all of this and I, I still want you back.” These impactful lyrics blend with a steadily growing instrumental, including backing vocals and guitar from friend and label mate, Ed Sheeran. This track has a similar, familiar feeling to Peters’ earlier work, but with a new, fresh twist for The Good Witch.
A heartfelt love letter to her bandmates, “The Band And I” takes listeners with Peters on her 2022 North American headline tour, and features a handful of anecdotes from that time period. She sings through these moments in lyrics such as “We played Heads Up in a car in Seattle,” “Two nights in the El Rey went flying,” and the final chorus’ “In Philadelphia, it was crystal clear. We are the best damn band that’s ever played right here.” The track has an underlying theme of living the dream, and feels like a warm hug from a familiar friend wrapped up in a perfect mixture of folk inspired guitars and a light piano line.
The empowering “You’re Just A Boy (And I’m Kinda The Man)” sees Peters putting her foot down regarding a past relationship and choosing to look forward. Explained in an Instagram post as “a ‘you really disappointed me and I’m really cut up about it but you know what, I have a world tour to get on with’” kind of moment. Lyrics like “I’m on a one-way trip to take over the world / You could’ve come, but your head’s in the sand” and “You won’t see what you’re given’ up till I’ve already left” blend with a upbeat, pop backing track that you can’t help but dance to.
The second single, “Lost The Breakup,” continues the themes of female empowerment and digging yourself out of the all too familiar breakup-induced depths. “If ‘Body Better' was me at my lowest, ‘Lost The Breakup’ was me clawing my way back up and out,” Peters explained to fans in an Instagram post, “It feels like a song I’ll want to sing for the rest of my life.” You can feel the pure strength and emotion coursing through the lyrics, from the pre-chorus (“I’m hurting but I’m certain it’s still true, I’m the best thing that almost happened to you”), to the chorus (“I know I’m obsessed and right now I might be a mess, but, one day you’re gonna wake up / And, oh shit, you lost the breakup”), to the bridge (“I say, ‘I’m kinda busy but, like, stay in touch?’ I think, ‘Oh shit, I won the breakup’”). This relentlessly catchy tune features a punchy drum track and intriguing synths, and is certainly a standout of the album.
The album takes a softer turn with “Wendy,” referencing the character from Peter Pan. The allusion is not lost within the lyrics, which see Peters singing “You could take me to Neverland, baby / We could live off of magic and maybes [...] Behind every lost boy, there’s always a Wendy.” A delicate opening builds to meet a bold, impactful chorus to match the gravity of Peters’ expert penmanship and features a light synth arpeggio in the background that adds to the magical theme of the track.
Described as a song that is “for the girls who have, quite simply, had enough,” “Run” is an older song, having been written in January of 2022 (a year and a half prior to the release of the album). “I’d had a conversation with another friend where one of us said, ‘Next time a man says I want you in my life forever–and then proceeds to act in the most atrocious way any man has ever acted–we’re out,’” Peters explained to Apple Music. This conversation is directly referenced within the chorus with the lyrics, “If a man says that he wants you in his life forever, run / If he calls you up, says he’s so in love and it’s been one week, you better run.” A chaotic, electronica backing track accompanies this sentiment, truly making the listener feel like they’re on the run from someone.
The third single, released in May 2023, "Two Weeks Ago” tells the story of regretting missed opportunities and unspoken words. Despite being a raw, gentle, track thats instrumentation is fairly simpler compared to other songs on the album (primarily reliant on a piano-based backing track), “Two Weeks Ago” still oozes with complex, heartfelt lyrics. “I wish it was two weeks ago. In your room that night, I wish I’d know. When you held me tight, wish I hadn’t let go,” Peters sings with a tinge of longing that tug at the listener’s heartstrings.
A sharp tone shift from “Two Weeks Ago,” “BSC” sees Peters at her most unhinged and irrational. “With every new line I wrote, I was like, ‘Is this too far?’,” She explained in a pre-release Instagram post, “and then I just proceeded to go further and further.” You can feel the rage and angst radiating through the lyrics, especially in the chorus: “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.” A rich, punctuating backing track that expertly layers piano, guitar, and drums to add emphasis throughout the track. “It feels like one of the most ‘me’ songs I’ve ever made,” Peters concluded in the aforementioned Instagram post.
“Therapy” focuses on healing and moving forward after a breakup, even if it was healthy or on amicable terms. “You couldn’t have loved a girl, any harder than you loved me,“ She sings before breaking into the chorus; “But, now you’re gone, honey, I can’t sleep. I’m just talking to your memory.” Described by Peters as being about how “sometimes it’s worse to be loved so well, because you can’t hate or blame anyone [...] but yourself”, that sentiment is clear within the lyrics, “Loving you was letting you leave.” The track disguises its deeper message behind a layer of bouncy, upbeat instrumentation, a motif of Peters’ that fans have grown to love.
The penultimate track, “There It Goes,” closes the chapter on the The Good Witch era of Peters’ life, and sees her being happy and content with where she has ended up despite the trials and tribulations of getting there. She alludes back to “The Good Witch” (“Am I better yet?”) through the first verse, singing, “I’m doing better, I made it to September. I can finally breathe.” This cathartic, moving track represents a shift in Peters’ life perspective, evident in the lines “The love we had was eatin’ me whole, I had to send it home [...] There it was, now there it goes” and “The universe is shiftin’ and it’s all for me.”
Peters examines the feminine experience with “History Of Man,” closing out the album with this deep, heart wrenching tune. A sonically simple track that touches on various topics explored throughout The Good Witch, Peters described the song in an Instagram post as being “important” and “something bigger than [herself]”. She pulls at the listeners heartstrings, lamenting, “Women’s hearts are lethal weapons, did you hold mine and feel threatened?” You can feel every ounce of power pouring out in this impactful and vulnerable piece of art, putting a final stamp on the masterpiece that is The Good Witch.
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Maisie Peters will be hitting the road this summer across North America, both as a headliner and opening for Ed Sheeran (select shows), before performing a sold out Wembley arena show in November and hitting Europe and Australia in 2024.
