Life looks a little different for Maisie Peters now compared to when she last released an album. Since sharing her second record, 2023’s ‘The Good Witch’, the British singer-songwriter was tapped to support Taylor Swift and Noah Kahan, and earned her first UK Number One album. But just as things were ramping up at the end of 2024, she hit pause and took a step back from the spotlight for the sake of her mental health. She left London and headed back “to the hills and to the spires” of the small Sussex town she grew up in, searching for tranquillity and finding love in the arms of her high school sweetheart.
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‘Florescence’, her return to public-facing life, captures that sense of peace, but also acknowledges the journey Peters has been on to get here. Gorgeous love songs (‘Audrey Hepburn’, ‘Vampire Time’) mingle with tracks about past disappointments and heartbreaks, the latter delivered not with the pain and anger found on ‘The Good Witch’ but with a sense of acceptance and embracing lessons learned. On the stripped-back ‘Flat Earther’, she compares deluding herself that an ex was in love with her to the staunch convictions of conspiracy theorists, while ‘Old Fashioned’ – a gently stomping piece of Americana – rolls its eyes at posturing former partners and their attempts to woo new women.
Sonically, this album feels far calmer, too. Where ‘The Good Witch’ bounced through sparkling, chugging pop, here Peters dips her toes in country-leaning, acoustic-led softness. It makes sense – much of the album was written and recorded in Nashville with co-producer Ian Fitchuk, the sounds of Music City mirroring Peters’ internal growth. ‘Say My Name In Your Sleep’ is driven by a finger-picked guitar line that elevates things from simple folk to country twang, and ‘My Regards’ mixes the genre with a sprinkle of dark pop.
There’s still some of Peters’ old bite here, despite her general mellowing. ‘Kingmaker’, a duet with Julia Michaels, finds the two songwriters swapping lines about men who “love a strong woman until it makes [them] bitter” and their “fucking weird behaviour”. It’s gently eviscerating, taking the character at the song’s centre apart in hushed tones and a sense of disappointment, rather than anger.
‘Florescence’’s title refers to the process of flowering, and on the record, you can hear Peters go through her own blossoming. It takes a while to get there – and some of the tracklist could have been trimmed to keep things from the occasional drift – but by the time you reach ‘Girl’s Just Flying’, she’s healed and immune to the effects of her exes. “And I know now what we had was nothing like being in love,” she shares on finale ‘Nothing Like Being In Love’, free of resentment and safe in the knowledge she’s pushed through the weeds to thrive.
Details
- Record label: Gingerbread Man Records/Asylum Records UK
- Release date: May 22, 2026