Maya Hawke - ‘Moss’ - album review
Maya Hawke - Moss (Hive Magazine)
It's not easy being a nepotism baby. Especially when your parents are A-list movie stars and nineties heartthrobs Uma Thurman and Ethan Hawke, but Maya Hawke is determined to make a name for herself outside of this title. In a summer that has boasted an extremely successful fourth season of supernatural drama Stranger Things, a main role in teen comedy Do Revenge, and a solo Calvin Klein campaign, Hawke decided she wasn’t quite done yet and topped it all off with the release of sophomore album ‘Moss’.
As the follow up to her 2020 debut ‘Blush’, Hawke was looking to cement her place in the quickly growing folk scene but with her new release it seems that she has already made that step. ‘Moss’ is co- created by producer Benjamin Lazar Davis, along with help from Christian Lee Hutson and Jonathan Low, whose credits include Taylor Swift’s Folklore and Phoebe Bridgers’ Punisher – before this album has even begun to take shape, it is in incredibly capable hands who know their way around this genre and the things that make it tick. Hawke’s music has the trifecta of things that make the ‘sad girl starter pack’ genre truly gripping – heartbreaking & brutally honest lyrics, sparce instrumentalism, and a simple yet effective melody.
In a recent interview Hawke stated that they “made sure that every sound we used on the record was used three times.” These recurring themes that we hear help to foster a sense of ease for its listeners, allowing them to relax and feel at home with Hawke’s soothing voice and allows us to instead focus on the lyrics that she has so sincerely crafted. Yes, the music itself isn’t exactly adventurous but it works in favour of the storytelling in her lyricism and provides the calmer element that it desperately needs. The acoustic and ambient instrumentals give the music a natural element and makes the entire listening experience feel as if we are sat at a secluded campfire with Hawke, listening to her detail her past through her lyrics that are overflowing with themes of love, lost connections, and broken relationships. Her parents would divorce when she was seven, so it is only natural that these themes play a large part in her poetic words.
There is an extremely vulnerable and raw notion to ‘Moss’. The lyrics feel less like a song and more like gentle poetry that has been put to music with Hawke’s warm vocal tones, just as music should be. There are multiple occasions in which we hear things that we feel we are intruding on. Toward the end of the album these moments feel frequent and lets us feel as if we are a private audience who luckily get to be in present for the inception of a piece of art as beautiful as ‘Moss’. Toward the end of Sweet Tooth, Hawke can be heard laughing and it feels genuine, as if they caught a private moment between takes and simply placed it in. It is the perfect way to bridge the gap between the most pop-friendly song on the record and the raw, intense imagery that the rest of the album brings.
Maya Hawke refuses to be labeled and put in a box, and it is no clearer than it is with ‘Moss’. She may be an award-winning actress, or the face of a number of high-profile fashion campaigns, or even the child of world-famous actors, but on ‘Moss’, Hawke can just be herself. We get to join her as she explores and navigates her thoughts at her own pace, showing us the tales of desire that she details vividly; though it is not one of the typical desires we know, but more one of tenderness and loss. We get to feel the yearning within as Hawke develops her own unique sound as the album goes on. There is so much more certainty in her sonic direction as she develops her identity as a folk songwriter – a style that is evidently working well for her. By the end of ‘Moss’, we have grown with Hawke and joined her as she has finally reached the version of herself she was destined to be.
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
