MAISIE PETERS - YOU SIGNED UP FOR THIS
Detailing stories – both imaginary and autobiographical – of the teenage experience of love and heartbreak, Maisie writes with the maturity and insight of a learning adult.
Debut album You Signed Up For This from British singer-songwriter Maisie Peters is a compelling pop project, and the first album released on Ed Sheeran’s Ginger Bread Man Records. Detailing stories – both imaginary and autobiographical – of the teenage experience of love and heartbreak, Maisie writes with the maturity and insight of a learning adult. Citing Taylor Swift as her musical idol, Peters appears to be following in the pop star’s footsteps, connecting to fans globally via her music and social media, under the self-professed banner of ‘sad emo pop’.
Dropped during British festival season, You Signed Up For This translates wonderfully on stage. The self-titled track, ‘You Signed Up For This’, has crowds enthusiastically screaming a chorus of ‘oh’s’, not to mention the energy brought for the album’s second single ‘Psycho’. ‘John Hughes Movie’, which details a seventeen-year-old heartbreak at prom and album’s debut single, has also appeared to resonate loudly from stages across the country.
Album highlights include ‘Villain’ and ‘Volcano’, and of course the infamous Swiftian Track 5, ‘Love Him I Don’t.’ On ‘Villain’, Peters watches her love interest move on with a ferocity implicit in her writing; “I’ll burn this house, I mean it”, she sings, a sentiment she echoes on ‘Volcano’, when, tongue-in-cheek, she declares “I’ll throw you in a volcano, I hope death is sudden”. Both songs, however, contain a vulnerability and open-heartedness reminiscent of Swift’s own work.
Peters doesn’t exchange lyrical prowess for infectious pop beats, proving that you can, indeed, have both. The lyricism on ‘Love Him I Don’t’ is possibly a career highlight for Peters; she opens the song with: “I could see a bloodbath coming / playing checkers as the flat was flooding” and ends with an adamant “loving you’s not fair / so love you I don’t”.
Moving away from the folk sounds of her past projects, You Signed Up For This is an easy progression from her previous EPs, Dressed Too Nice For A Jacket and It’s Your Bed Babe, It’s Your Funeral, whose ‘This Is On You’ and ‘Adore You’ first embraced pop with an open sincerity and cheeky quick-wittedness. Don’t think she’s left her roots completely behind, though – both ‘Tough Act’ and ‘Hollow’ are reminiscent of her previous work, giving the listener the sense that You Signed Up For This is truly the culmination of years of hard work and craftsmanship.
Peters recently said in an interview that the hardest part about making pop music is making it appear effortless, and for a debut album, she’s gotten close. Amongst some clumsy moments (such as ‘Trying (Not Friends)’, which was originally intended for the soundtrack of Apple’s TV show Trying, and ‘Boy’) You Signed Up For This displays Peters as more than just a songwriter. Between the visuals for the album, the music videos, the phenomenal live performances, she has proven herself to be an artist through and through, whose talent will no doubt rocket her to halls of pop success alongside the likes of Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish, and Olivia Rodrigo.
Francesca Dunlop
★★★★★