British singer-songwriter, Maisie Peters, released her hotly anticipated third studio album, Florescence, last Friday 22nd May. Having released five singles in the build-up to the album’s release – ‘You You You’, ‘Audrey Hepburn’, ‘Say My Name In Your Sleep’, ‘My Regards’, and ‘Kingmaker’ – the full record adds a further 10 tracks, to take the total to 15. This number will become important as the review goes on.
Maisie has always been known for the importance she places on structure within her work, and Florescence is arguably her greatest achievement to date of doing just that. The album can be broken down into seven pairs of songs (or couplets if you want to use the poetic term that is certainly apt in this case), and then a final stand alone track at the end, ‘Nothing Like Being In Love’. This is crucial to emphasising one of the key messages Maisie is trying to convey, that being that she finally understands what being in love is, and that it comes from placing your own self-worth first, and therefore finding someone who supports that too. The album relays this discovery through the personal journey of the highs and lows of various relationships.
Maisie is also known for her poignant introductory and powerful conclusive tracks that mark the start and end of her albums. Florescence is no different, with its opener, ‘Mary Janes’, being Maisie at her most vulnerable and honest, discussing what people have seen as her various flaws, but then revelling in her humanity. Lines like “I’ve never been the angel in the perfume ad, my body’s not a temple, more a bachelorette pad” and “sometimes when I sing, I get the big note wrong, the teenagers held onto that all summer long”, suggest an acceptance of her normality, a theme that will echo throughout the rest of the album, and then be emphasised in the closing track.
Humourous quips such as “’cause I don’t really care about the fashion balls, my lover likes me best with nothing on at all”, will demonstrate Maisie at her most comfortable and thriving, especially when with a lover who understands this, best summed up in the lyrics, “I’m not the coolest or the greatest in the club, it doesn’t matter, oh, man, anymore, who gives a fuck when I’m in love”.
As previously noted, the songs can be seen as coming in pairs, and therefore track two, ‘Audrey Hepburn’, continues with the theme of the joys of falling in love with someone who makes you feel worthy. The nice imagery of “my heart was a hellhound, now my heart sits on your lap” again suggests comfortability, and the whole song depicts a love full of freedom and exploration – “Oh, take me back to the country, to the hills, and to the spires, I hate the after parties, I want forests, I want fires”. This also introduces the key theme of nature that weaves in and out of the record, reflecting a persona who is growing or blooming, and therefore relating back to the album title itself, Florescence. Oh, and to be told you look like Audrey Hepburn, might be the greatest compliment one could ever receive right?
The next couple of tracks, ‘Say My Name In Your Sleep’ and ‘Old Fashioned’ are far less positive, and feature the common feelings of bitterness and jealousy after a breakup, especially when you see your lover move on with somebody else. The former features a series of questions, essentially asking whether she will ever be forgotten, as she is so deeply ingrained in the memories and objects of her past lover. This will become even more significant when compared to the song, ‘Questions’, later on in the album, and is one key sign of Maisie’s growth as the record plays out. The closing line, “But I hope you say my name in your sleep”, perfectly sums up how she wants to always linger in her former lover’s mind.
‘Old Fashioned’ contains similar emotions, but takes them more to the extreme. The brilliant chorus simply says it all – “And you only drink old fashioneds, and it’s so attractive, and she’s eating it up until the very last call, she thinks you’re so magic, it’s fucking barbaric, if I could take your glass, I’d throw it hard at the wall, I wish you’d never happened, never happened”. This is Maisie at her most angry, with the slice of “bitter orange” that comes with an Old Fashioned cocktail a deliberate creative choice to demonstrate exactly how she is feeling.
‘Houses’ and ‘Kingmaker’ are again focused on life post-breakup, but this time, instead of bitterness, there is a realisation that she was not the problem, that she made a narrow escape, and that her self-worth is much more important than any relationship. ‘Houses’ describes a life she could have had if she stuck with her lover, on the face of it a secure and pleasant existence, but really without any enjoyment or dreams. “Oh, I can see it, like a nightmare, like a vision, the houses my old lovers will live in”, confirms the escape she was able to make.
‘Kingmaker’, which also features Julia Michaels, goes one step further in its reclaiming of power, stating that although her lover believed himself to be a king and saviour, the real dominance in the relationship came from Maisie herself as the ‘Kingmaker’. This growth from self-contempt and jealousy, to confidence and freedom is clearly an important lesson that Maisie has learnt from love, and one we can all follow too.
‘Vampire Time’ and ‘My Regards’ return us back to the joys of finding someone new and falling for them. Lyrics like “Tell me, oh, are you still on vampire time? ‘Cause heaven knows that you’re still on my mind. I had to know what you’re doing tonight, and what you’re doing tomorrow and the rest of your life”, reflect that obsession you have when you first meet someone you like. ‘My Regards’ follows this theme of infatuation, this time a bit further into the relationship, with witty lines like “‘scuse me, sorry, his kisses make me cocky, call me Kevin Costner the way I’m guarding his body”, a suggestion of the joy and almost ecstasy of being with someone only you can have.
But once more, the relationship breaks down. This time though, the overriding emotion of ‘You You You’ and ‘If You Let Me’ is melancholy. This is even tied in with the theme of drinks again, with the lines, “I drink about you, so this gin tastes like cement, I care about you, knowing you couldn’t care less, I think about us, what if ’til I’m powder blue, what if everything I do is full of you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you”. The slow strumming of acoustic guitar accompanies perhaps the saddest song on the album, encapsulated in what seems to be a fairly hopeless claim that, “I’ll be alright, if you let me”, especially when followed by the lines, “stay up all night to forget you, losing you is evergreen”. Again, natural imagery is back, if this time only to depict a seemingly endless sorrow.
The step taken to move on from such sadness is one heavily involved with theories and questions. The relationship in ‘Flat Earther’ is described as “her favourite conspiracy”, particularly apt for her claim that, “I loved you like a flat earther, so stubborn, so dumb”. Therefore, the expectation for the track titled ‘Questions’ would likely be a song full of hopeless theorising, but instead Maisie completely turns this on its head, reclaiming power again, and spinning the potential overthinking of questions over why the relationship broke down as his issue not hers. No longer is this the frenzied, jealous Maisie of ‘Say My Name In Your Sleep’, now she is completely unmoved by anything her former lover has to say. The repetition of “your answers, ignorable, these questions, don’t bother, babe” shows such an appreciation of her own self-worth, and when this is slightly altered to form the brilliant rhyme, “your answers, ignorable, these questions, rhetorical”, Maisie’s thriving as an individual really shines through.
And as we get to the final pair of songs on the album, this thriving and reclaiming of power is at its most prominent. The uplifting and head-bobbing riff of ‘Girl’s Just Flying’ immediately sets the tone, with the title alone already suggesting how Maisie is absolutely loving her life of freedom. There is a complete contrast to the tone of ‘Old Fashioned’, with Maisie now claiming, “I’m not bitter, I’m not dying, I forget about you when I’m not even trying, they play our song, and I keep driving, oh can’t bait the girl if the girl’s not biting, can’t get to the girl now, the girl’s just flying”.
‘You Then Me Now’ confirms how Maisie is holding the power in the here and now. Whereas once it was “you in the clouds, me in the tunnels”, now “it’s you in the dirt, me with the shovel”. Now she has realised her own strength and value, her heart is no longer breaking and she doesn’t feel the need to cry.
Therefore, by the time track 15 comes along, Maisie has taken us on a crazy rollercoaster of emotions. Through pairing the songs thematically throughout the album, she depicts her growth through her relationships with other people. The final song though comes on its own, a deliberate choice to suggest that she is no longer reliant on anyone else, and in fact is able to thrive best when working on herself.
The title of the final track is ‘Nothing Like Being In Love’, which has a clever double meaning that will come to be explained. It perfectly wraps up the themes and experiences of the album, emphasising that these past relationships were nothing like what actually being in love is (the first meaning of the song’s title). “A million ceasefires” later, she has now found the ability to prioritise herself, and has met someone who understands that also.
Mentions of “redwood” and “Eden” and “water” and “light” nicely round off the album’s natural imagery, of course directly aligning itself with the album’s title, Florescence. Her own Spotify account defines the term as “the process of flowering. The process of developing richly and fully”. She has certainly done that by the end.
Maisie gives one final piece of magic with the second meaning behind the song’s title. Now she has found “somebody honest, somebody kind, somebody always by my side, there’s nothing like being in love”. What a beautiful conclusion.
Go listen to Florescence by Maisie Peters with this link!!
