British pop star Maisie Peters released her album, The Good Witch, on June 23, 2023. The young artist plays with fun, petty, and sarcastic lyricism in this record, which, released at the onset of the summer, encapsulates the fun and excitement of the season.
We are all aware of the story Peter Pan, but we don’t hear much from Wendy’s perspective. In the song “Wendy,” Peters retells this known story through the eyes of Wendy. Peters sings: “You could take me to Neverland, baby / We could live off of magic and maybes ” expressing how Peter is unreliable in his relationship with her . She has to choose if she wants to wait around for him, or face reality and stand her ground. As well as showing the choices Wendy has to make, it also highlights how women are categorized in society: “And you’re pretty like a girl / ‘Til you’re vicious like a man.” Through this catchy line, Peters conveys the dynamic persona of this person.
The song, “The Band and I” celebrates the close relationships and experiences of Peters and her band. This is the moment in the album where she stops to look at their experiences and see it through a more romantic lens: “Yeah, it was power cuts / it was certain doom /
It was living in the Little Rock laundry room.” There were lows, but because the band was experiencing it together, they made them highs. This song symbolizes her ‘I made it moment’, when she and the band realize they are living their dream. “It was a far-flung wish when we were young /Now we’re living the dream and I hope we never wake up.” This is everything that they have wished for and more, leaving a fulfilling feeling in the listeners’ hearts.
“Lost The Breakup,” the most popular song on the album, is an upbeat telling of a girl’s thought process post breakup. While she sadly reminisces about the good days of the relationship, she realizes that her ex isn’t as affected. She states how she is hurting while he is busy with other girls. By the end of the song, she recognized that she had moved on and is doing better, or, to say it in her words, she “won the breakup.”
“The History of Man” is the closing track to the album, and leaves the listener thinking. The whole premise of the song is that humans continuously make the same mistakes that are almost impossible to break free of. “I tried to rewrite it but I can’t / It’s the history, the history of man.” Peters talks about how, no matter how hard she tries, there is nothing she can do; we are doomed. Later in the song, Peters also touches on gender, writing “Women’s hearts are lethal weapons / Did you hold mine and feel threatened?” She says that women are underestimated, including her, and that when people saw her full potential, it scared them because she was succeeding.
The rest of the album continues the theme of making it out of a difficult experience. In the song “You’re Just A Boy (And I’m Kinda The Man)” she explores how she wanted to explore other things with someone, while realizing that it ended up better because she left him. The Good Witch is a great album, and fortunately for listeners, this 23-year-old musician will only continue to grow.
