More about: Maisie Peters

Maisie Peters’ debut album You Signed Up For This is an insight into young relationships and her own coming of age, with songs that feel like they've come straight out of a teenage diary.

After working with artists such as Ed Sheeran and James Bay as well as producers Afterhrs (Niall Horan) and Brad Ellis (Jorja Smith, Little Mix), it is easy to see that Peters’ is full to the brim with talent, and her influences are clear in her music.

The beautifully delicate vocals of ‘Hollow’ paired with a twinkling folk guitar and soft strings section creates such a fragile environment, especially juxtaposed against the previous, much sassier track, ‘Boy’. The way Peters manages to convey emotion through her melodies means that some of the songs could be equally as effective just as instrumentals. Many of these songs could make up part of a great soundtrack to a new era Angus, Thongs, and Perfect Snogging-style teenage girl coming of age film.

Co-written with Ed Sheeran and Steve Mac, single ‘Psycho’ is a high point of the album. By far the most synth heavy and danceable track, ‘Psycho’ brings a welcome reprieve from its acoustic predecessors and with its joyful, bouncy melody, it's a really feel-good post-break-up tune. Out of all of You Signed Up For This, this is the track you’d put on to hype yourself up before a night out after a messy break-up. 

The biggest issue with this album is that, fundamentally, a lot of the songs revolve around the same relationship and its break-up—and they do sound pretty similar to one another. For somebody going through a break-up, this album will be a great comfort listen, but aside from ‘Brooklyn’ which focuses on a holiday to New York with her sister, every song on the 14-track album seems to follow the same subject matter.

Melodically, though, every single track is beautiful. It's no small feat to have released a soundtrack for a show and an album in the same year, even if You Signed Up For This can tend towards the repetitive.

You Signed Up For This arrives 27 August via Gingerbread Man/Asylum/Warner Records.

More about: Maisie Peters