MAITA - want (2024) [Hi-Res]

When Maria Maita-Keppeler was in college, she studied the art of Japanese woodblock printmaking. “By the nature of the medium, you have to be bold,” she says — but, you also have to be delicate, deliberate, exacting. All those little cuts on their own add up to the whole — to a picture, a story, a life.

The Japanese-American singer-songwriter applies that same approach to her band, MAITA; she only writes songs she intends to finish. She only makes cuts in service of the whole. And once the debris has been blown away, the melodies remain — vibrant, sharp, and often heartbreaking. The band’s latest LP, want, out July 25 via Fluff & Gravy Records, is all of the above. A razor’s edge look at a relationship in turmoil, the record serves to strip away everything undesired in Maita-Keppeler’s life, leaving behind only that titular word: want.

want marks the band’s latest evolution: a woozy swirl of crystalline rock and melancholy that examines the agony and ecstasy of a long-term relationship in turmoil — and what Maita-Keppeler truly desires out of life. “The album allowed me this opportunity to be a little more courageous about my feelings,” she says. “I grew up feeling very much like the peacekeeper. Now, I have to be really assertive about what I want for myself.”

Tracklist:
1.01 - MAITA - girl at the bar (3:47)
1.02 - MAITA - break up song x3 (3:24)
1.03 - MAITA - cold light (3:38)
1.04 - MAITA - ellipsis (0:27)
1.05 - MAITA - at a bad time (2:23)
1.06 - MAITA - hotel (4:14)
1.07 - MAITA - waking up at night (3:52)
1.08 - MAITA - i used to feel different (3:26)
1.09 - MAITA - violet dream (4:09)
1.10 - MAITA - happy with you (2:43)
1.11 - MAITA - almost nothing, keeps me alive (3:25)
1.12 - MAITA - i don't want to kill you (3:21)