Maddie Carpenter Looks To A Brighter Future On ‘You’

Maddie Carpenter’s latest release rues the end of a romance but looks to a brighter future 

Maddie Carpenter ‘You’

Bay Area singer-songwriter Maddie Carpenter’s latest single ‘You’, is a “devastating bedroom-pop song” that delves into the same melting pot of emotions that was first steered in her debut single ‘Cowboy’ released at the end of 2021. In the track, she sang about how love and passion pull you away from childhood’s security and innocence, as relationships form based on these powerful and overriding emotions. In her latest release, written when she was 17 amidst a period of friends’ parents going through divorce and separation, the singer explores the next phase of this emotionally driven rite of passage, when relationships come to an end and what may lie ahead. 

Languid bass and snare with gently strummed guitar chords pave the way to a twinkling xylophone, which creates a safe space, a vantage point from which Carpenter can look back and ruminate on where she may be heading next. Though she laments the end of the romance, she elicits hope and positivity, allowing herself time to pause, reflect and readjust before setting off in the search for something new, “I was left undone, now I’m taking back the key”. It is an empowering track that floats by on Carpenter’s crystalline vocal, charting her psychological journey from introspection and sorrow to the string-adorned second chorus of “it was you” which brings a sense of joyful epiphany. 

“This song was kind of my way of understanding the unravelling of a long-term relationship, or what I imagined it felt like.”

Considering the song was written when Carpenter was a teenager, it shows an incredible sense of depth and understanding of adult emotion, which matched with an honest and pure vocal delivers a heart-warming track.

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Words Andrew Gutteridge

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