“Diaz’s strong sense of melody and vulnerable lyrics put her squarely above most of her peers…folk-pop albums about heartbreak are a dime a dozen these days, but Madi Diaz is one of the few who really know how to do it right”‘
Released February 9, 2024

“Four-and-a-snapped strings out of six.”

After opening for Harry Styles on his summer tour, Madi Diaz released her sixth studio album on February 9, 2024. Weird Faith features Diaz on numerous instruments like guitar, bass and piano, with Nat Smith on strings, and Matt Barrick and Adam Schreiber on percussion. Country star Kacey Musgraves also contributes the occasional backing vocal.

Heartbreak is at the core of the album, and Madi Diaz’s lyrics come off as strikingly sincere. For example, on the title track Weird Faith, she sings:

cause every love brings a lesson
and I’m gonna be tested
so I’m gonna have a heart of gold
I’m gonna have weird faith.

Like most pop artists, her vocabulary is simple but the content of her lyrics is some of the deepest in the genre.

The album is at its best when the listener feels like they are alone in a room with Madi, and that tends to happen most when she is singing alone with her nylon string acoustic guitar. Unfortunately, there are times on the record when her beautiful melodies and lyrics are obscured by over-arrangement. For example, on Get To Know Me, the first half of the song creates the vulnerable and intimate atmosphere where her style shines best, before the reverbed drums and tambourines enter in the second half and shatter it. 

Overall, Diaz’s strong sense of melody and vulnerable lyrics puts her squarely above most of her peers, and in a purely musical sense probably even beyond Harry Styles and Taylor Swift. Pop albums about heartbreak are a dime a dozen these days, but Madi Diaz is one of the few who really know how to do it right.

Madi Diaz Website

Weird Faith can be purchased on Bandcamp.