"At the outset of Madi Diaz's seventh studio album, Fatal Optimist, the emphasis is heavy on the "fatal." On opener "Hope Less," the Nashville singer-songwriter's voice bristles with furious disappointment over the sullen thrum of her guitar, a metallic echo only serving to emphasize her solitude. "You want me to want less/And I wanted to need less," she belts, on a rough-hewn and bereft chorus. But what she really wants, as the wordplay of the title has it, is to "hope less.""
"It follows her 2021 breakout record History of a Feeling-the one that, despite being her fifth studio album, led to mainstream success and tours with Waxahatchee and Harry Styles-and the 2024 follow-up, Weird Faith. Both mined the chaotic, tender headspace of breakups and new relationships: the rage, the jealousy, the embarrassment, and, most of all, the weird and glorious faith that allows us to make ourselves vulnerable all over again after getting hurt."
"Fatal Optimist, as its title suggests, revisits similar territory-but this time the landscape is darker, and Diaz cuts a more solitary figure as she traverses it. Writing in the wake of another breakup, Diaz says she wanted Fatal Optimist to sound "as isolated as I was feeling." Together with co-producer Gabe Wax ( Soccer Mommy, Adrianne Lenker), she crafted a starkly intimate palette: for the majority of the record, she sings alone, accompanied only by her acoustic guitar."
Madi Diaz's seventh studio album, Fatal Optimist, centers on heartbreak and isolation, opening with the furious, solitary "Hope Less." The record functions as the third installment in a heartache trilogy following History of a Feeling (2021) and Weird Faith (2024). Diaz recorded a stark, intimate palette with co-producer Gabe Wax, often singing alone with acoustic guitar to mirror personal isolation. The pared-back arrangements highlight precise melodies and blunt, brutal lyrics. Songs alternate between jittery anger, as on "Feel Something," and softer country-inflected balladry, exploring rage, jealousy, embarrassment, and a weary, fragile faith in vulnerability after hurt.
Read at Pitchfork
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]