Lingering in Doorways

Maisie Peters is a witch.

To be clear, it’s the highest of compliments. Her sophomore studio album The Good Witch, released earlier this week, has kept me (and legions of others) under an iron-clad love spell ever since. Already being hailed as her best and most ambitious, this groundbreaking new record draws its title from the female perspectives of women in Greek mythology — fitting, as it’s an album that’s part break-up anthem, part introspective coming-of-age, and part act of catharsis. Intimate, empowering, and just plain fun, The Good Witch lets us into the mind (and heart) of a seasoned storyteller at her most candid.

Listen to it with me in real time. (Spotify) (Apple Music) (Youtube)

1 the good witch

This is the kind of story that begins with a prologue, and titular track The Good Witch is a fitting one. Introductions first — “Still me here,” she greets, the album’s first three words. “D’you think I forgot about you? Still upset, but now I’m twenty-two.” We get those witchy vibes right off the bat, with allusions to haunted houses, candlelit chants, and pulling heartbreak out of hats. Right from the get-go, Maisie cements herself as our narrator. “This is my campfire,” she seems to say. “My story. You want to hear it? Okay. Here goes.” Tell me why my favorite line is also the simplest — still upset, but now I’m twenty-two. Something about the idea of I’m still not over it, but also I’m older now, and that counts for something. No? I think there’s something so impactful about adding that in a song full of metaphors. Also, I’m twenty-one writing this (twenty-two while editing), and it speaks to me that we’re so close in age.

2 coming of age

Pulsing with main character energy, Maisie reclaims her role as the star of her own story: “Like, you had the speaking parts, but I guess I was the playwright,” she muses, and even more brilliantly, “Baby, I am the Iliad, of course you couldn’t read me.” You could cast her ex-lover’s role in this as Love Interest The Protagonist Thinks Is Out Of Her League The Whole Film But By The Third Act Reveals Himself To Be A Total Loser. And so she dumps him. And falls in love with herself. And learns the value of self-worth and friendship yadayada. Maisie says screw you, and screw what you put me through — this is my story. I wrote you in. I can write you out.

3 watch

I gotta be honest, I love a track that just bubbles with poorly hidden resentment. That’s exactly what this is about — the bitterness of watching someone who did you wrong thrive. “Telling the wide web that this is my era, then writing a lot of heartbroken music. Nobody ever happy and healthy has ever felt so desperate to prove it.” LOL. It’s so honest. After a relationship ends, there’s that inherent urge to “win the breakup” (she returns to this later) and I applaud the bravery of admitting that it’s clearly not her, though she keeps the performance up. There’s no punchline in this, no redemption, and she remains obsessive (but keenly self-aware) ‘til the end. My favorite line has got to be, “It looked like a film Michael Cera would act in, and it felt like a face slap.”

4 body better

I CAN’T HELP THINKING THAT SHE’S GOT A BETTER BODY, HAS SHE GOT A BODY BETTER THAN MINE?

This is the album’s lead single, and it’s not so hard to see why it was chosen — Body Better has got a hook (“I can’t help thinking that she’s got a better body, has she got a body better than mine?”) like a parasitic earworm. It’s not the body-positive anthem you’d expect but rather something along the lines of The Other Woman, rooted in crushing insecurity. “The worst way to love somebody is to watch them love somebody else and it work out” is a particularly painful punch to the gut. No one wants to admit to being the ex that can’t move on. Maisie doesn’t care though, and we get a great head-bopper because of it. I love the line “When you’re twisting up all her sheets, do you suffer?” because of how spitefully she sings it; you can’t help but picture her snide side-eye.

5 want you back

We’ve made it to the slower, more soulful, longing-filled ballads of Maisie’s fourth stage of grief, with the most powerful lines of Want You Back being, “I am not allowed to want you any longer. I must go out with a stranger, I must kiss him to get stronger.” It’s a secret passed on from her to us: “So I don’t tell a soul, but I’d be yours again tomorrow if you wanted. But you don’t wanna.” There’s desperation in this. And self-awareness. Maisie lists the ways her yearning has defied all logic — she knows the red flags, she can list them by heart, but it doesn’t matter. She still really, really wants him. And it’s at this point I go, oh my god, she really gets me. This is my girl. We need psychological help.

6 the band & I

It’s usually impossible for me to pick a favorite track when an album first drops, but I fell for The Band And I almost instantaneously. It’s the kind you listen to once and already dream of hearing in a stadium, surrounded by the sound of thousands of people singing along. It’s Maisie’s favorite, too. In an interview with Apple Music (I did my research) she recounts, “I remember when I was trying to put that song on my first record, I heard someone say, ‘It’s so specific. I’m not sure it’s for an album — who can understand this?’ But those are the most important songs.” In a way, this track is a slice-of-life, documenting Maisie’s experience touring with a heightened focus on detail. She name-drops people and places and packs in the anecdotes, over music that crescendoes in an almost euphoric final chorus. I think it’s what makes this song all the more special — this glimpse into her private life. It’s hard to pick a favorite line, but the words “It was magic babe / Pure and strong” capture that first listening experience perfectly.

7 you’re just a boy (and i’m kinda the man)

Name a funnier hook than “I take in clowns like a one-woman circus”, I’ll wait. This track is one of my favorites on the album, because it’s so rightfully spiteful, with a chorus that conjures up images of red flags, man-children, and a girl (The Man) that was always destined for greater. “I’m on a one-way trip to take over the world, you could’ve come but your head’s in the sand,” Maisie chides. It’s about her coming into her power and finally realizing her worth, all while dissing the boy that made her doubt it in the first place. After all the sad songs, we finally get the empowering farewell we’ve been waiting for — the aha! moment, if you will. There’s more to come, but You’re Just A Boy (And I’m Kinda The Man) is the most playful of them all.

8 lost the breakup

I stand corrected — it’s actually Lost The Breakup that has the quite literal oh shit! moment that grips you from the beginning. “Got the news just last month, that I am exhausting and you’re not in love. Didn’t say it in those words, but I know how your tone works.” It’s this scene that sets the story, one that begins in messiness and heartbreak but ends in a very satisfying look how the tables have turned bridge. This is the first song I heard from the album when the summer singles first dropped, and the one that got me excited for The Good Witch release in the first place. An instant bop, if you will. I love the rhyming in, “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, oh!” because it’s so clever and just plain fun to sing.

9 wendy

The Good Witch is a break-up album. Nearly every song in it is devastating in some way. So you know I don’t mean it lightly when I say that Wendy might just be the most heartbreaking of them all, especially when I would consider it to be in the genre of Tolerate It or Norman Fucking Rockwell! songs. “You can take me to Neverland, baby, we could live off of magic and maybes… But it gets old being forever twenty, and what about my wings? What about Wendy?” she sings in the second chorus. When people turn to the Neverland metaphor, they do so to romanticize the idea of being young and in love forever. Maisie does something far more interesting by exploring a certain dynamic — how it’s acceptable for young boys to be lost boys for as long as they want, but young girls need to be Wendy. To me, Wendy is about loving someone so fully that you lose sight of who you are and what you want. It’s about wanting so desperately to be a part of someone’s world that you’re willing to abandon your own. My favorite part, the bridge, goes: “Take the hand and go with him, be the clock that he watches, wait until he gets bored and wanders back to the forest. Leave the world that you live in, pretend it’s what you wanted. It’s a life I could have, I know.” Wendy is a horror story. I would not wish relating to this on my worst enemy.

10 run

After Wendy, Run is a far, far lighter, runway-ready track, sung from the perspective of a Maisie that is So Over It. It’s a warning: “If a man says that he wants you in his life forever, run.” Or if he tries to tell you that he’s the real deal. Or if he so much as smiles at you. Really, just stay away. Maisie wants you to know you’re better off because they’ll all disappoint you eventually. You can’t hate it — the resentment and I’m Just Looking Out For You energy is infectious, and so fun to dance to. Or run to. I do, at full speed. Which is 6 on the treadmill. I’m the fast walker type and not a runner.

11 two weeks ago

Okay, I’m going to get a little personal. If you’ve reached this far, and you are in fact not a die-hard Maisie Peters fan but are just here to be entertained, I feel like I owe it to you. During my first listen, Two Weeks Ago hit the hardest — and by hit, I mean slammed like a semi-truck at full speed — because of what I had been going through in my personal life at the time. There were certain things in my life I found extremely difficult to say goodbye to. Time was precious, and slipping past, and I found myself constantly fighting against the tide. As you can imagine, it was a fruitless struggle, and all it got me in the end is heartbreak and a whole lot of regret. “I wish we kissed when we first wanted, and we didn’t miss all the time we did. When we said goodbye, wish I hadn’t let go, and I wish it was two weeks ago.”

12 BSC

BSC stands for Bat Shit Crazy, the feral side that Maisie finally embraces in this song. So far, that’s what we’ve been missing. Now we have reached the sob-cackling, throwing-glasses-at-the-wall, I-am-going-to-ruin-your-life-and-make-you-wish-you-were-dead stage of heartache, and I’m so here for it: “You 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.” It’s giving wine-drunk, raccoon-faced Maisie at 3 AM. Who else can dream up, “Call up Graham Norton, I’m gonna throw you down the river, your mum can watch it over dinner?” That’s hilarious. I don’t know what he did, but he deserves it. Also: again, with that theme of her being the author of this story, and realizing the power it holds. I can write you out the way I wrote you in, indeed.

13 therapy

It’s witchcraft, the way Maisie is able to take these lyrically sad songs and make them sound so upbeat. Therapy is like that one radio hit you don’t realize is actually quite depressing, with a bridge that goes: “You gave me the world and you gave me your word, it built me like a promise ‘til it broke me like a curse. With your shadow in the door, you were turning in your key, and loving you was letting you leave.” That last part is therapy speak, a sign of resigned acceptance. There are traces of resentment that still linger — you promised you wouldn’t hurt me, but you did, you’re a liar — but it’s the perfect lead into There It Goes, our much-anticipated chapter of healing.

14 there it goes

And here it is — my actual favorite song off the album. And possibly of the year. This is The Good Witch’s Clean, a love letter to the initially daunting process of letting go. It’s so quietly powerful. The storytelling is impressive: you go on with your life, and slowly, before you realize it, you begin to grow around your heartache. It’s when you fill your life with friendship and self-love that the true magic happens. Healing can be subtle like that. There are no words for how much I love this song — it’s so cathartic, like the gentlest of hugs: You are okay. Everything will be okay. The entire bridge is the best part, but my special mentions will be “The comedown of closure, the girls and I do yoga, I wake up and it’s October, the loss is yours,” and “The universe is shifting and it’s all for me.”

15 history of man

Fourteen tracks later, and we have officially arrived at our devastating epilogue: lyrically gorgeous, but man, does it hurt. History of Man is packed with biblical references and historical allusions, through which Maisie seems to say: Heartbreak is universal. It’s imbedded in us. Sometimes, there’s nothing you can do — it’s simply the way things are. She opens with “Tale as old as honey,” which is a simple line but already so impactful: humans have used honey for 8,000 years. This is not a new story. “I’ve seen it in the poems and the sands, I’ve pleaded with the powers and their plans, I’ve tried to rewrite it but I can’t,” she continues in desperation. You know what’s coming, but you’re powerless to stop it — who hasn’t been in that position? I’ve got to pick “The men start wars but Troy hates Helen, women’s hearts are lethal weapons, did you hold mine and feel threatened?” as my favorite lines, because I love the complexity of gender dynamics she never fails to touch. You’d expect Maisie to take the obvious route and end on a lighter note, but of course she chose emotional violence instead.

final thoughts

Full disclosure: I’m writing this in May 2024, almost a year since the release of The Good Witch. While I’m technically editing — I had drafted and initially published this the very week of the drop — I’ve changed and even fully rewritten my thoughts on most songs that I can’t say my initial reaction to them was preserved. With that being said, not only do I still adore this album, but my love for it has grown. Tenfold. It’s the kind of album that can mean one thing your first listen and something else the next, and the longer I’ve been able to sit with it and relate to these messages, the more I’ve come to appreciate Maisie’s brilliance. In the year since my first listen, The Good Witch has become one of my favorite records of all time. I’m so glad I was able to hear it when I did.

Officially, my top three tracks would be: There It Goes, History of Man, and Wendy. Special mention goes to The Band & I. The catchiest for me was Body Better, and most underrated was Watch (I didn’t like it as much at first). I’m not a music critic by any means, and so the most I feel qualified to to touch on would be lyricism and storytelling, which I think Maisie knocks out of the park; to me, vocally and production-wise, every track is ear candy though. The Good Witch is a journey, and it’s a grand old time. You’ll love it if you love the themes of girlhood in Melodrama, the heartsick honesty of Sour, and the narrative storytelling in Folklore.