Atwood artist-to-watch Maisie Peters gives us a self-love anthem with her melodically blissful, lyrically crafted “The List.”
Stream: “The List” – Maisie Peters
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As humans we tend to be hard on ourselves. The sad truth is that we pay more attention to ourselves than anyone else ever will, which is why we are so easily able to pick on every little thing we do. Sometimes, especially in the times we’re in now – where we’re left alone more with our thoughts than ever – it’s important to take a step back and to not only recognize the things about yourself that you love, but the things you can do to be a little bit easier on yourself, therefore making it easier to practice that self-love. Atwood Magazine artist-to-watch Maisie Peters has once again perfectly crafted music and lyrics to give us an anthem for practicing self-love with melodically blissful, harmonically beautiful “The List.”
Peters describes the song: “It’s about liking yourself, even in moments when you really, really don’t like yourself. It’s also about coping mechanisms and my actual inability to look anyone in the eye, and my constant need to make jokes about anything even remotely sincere or sad! Haha!”
She continues by taking to her Instagram to say, “I do feel like since writing this song, I’ve made at least a subconscious choice to try and tick off some of my list every day, and that counts for something. We all have lists, but we are all much more than our lists, and should all remember that as often as we can.” Preach.
Pulsing piano begins subtly matching the heart rate that goes with releasing such vulnerable words into the ether:
I have a hobby of picking myself apart,
Leaving people I love waiting in the dark
And sometimes when I want to cry, I laugh
It’s kind of funny
The tone changes of slight as Peter’s delicate voice turns determined,
There’s a list of things that I should stop
list of things that I should stop
list of things that I not be doing but I do them
It’s a patent that I got
The range in Peter’s vocals is just one of the qualities that allows her to shine as she jumps almost an entire octave in one line whilst building to the chorus,
I need to stop my excuses
And have a real conversation
Need to look in the mirror
Stop finding things that need changing
Need to stop getting drunk to avoid the situation
I need to stop letting myself down
I’ll try something that I’ve not before
And like myself a little more, now
True to Peters fashion, she knocks us down with a piercing bridge,
I’m a master at dancing ‘round the point
I know I called you,
but I hate the sound of my own voice
So, can you talk you know I’m
stacking up until the night I’m not enough
and you’re just someone else I disappoint
The final chorus is the full stream of consciousness that often goes through humans’ minds; however, Peters has taken this stream and as she does best has carefully crafted it into precisely placed, beautifully poetic and relatable lyrics,
I need to stop my excuses and put my feelings in order
Need to look in the mirror and stand a little bit taller
Need to stop getting drunk as a reason to call you
I Need to stop letting myself down
Oh I should shut up and listen, not try to fill every silence
I should stumble in love instead of running and hiding
I should stop getting drunk and showing up uninvited
I need to stop letting myself down
I’ll try something that I’ve not before
And like myself a little more
Sometimes the songs that mean the most are the ones that fall out of artists like they were already there – these are the ones that are so raw, cutting and true.
The ones that grab hold of listeners and let them know they are not alone. Peters says, “I wrote [“The List”] with my friend Frances in her flat last year in early November, and I remember we spent the whole day flitting about with different ideas, until right at the end of the day she played that piano part and the whole song suddenly came flooding out like it was already written. I think maybe it was.”
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:: stream/purchase “The List” here ::
Stream: “The List” – Maisie Peters
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