For singer/songwriter Madi Diaz, tomorrow is the biggest day of her career. February 9 will see the release of Diaz’s new LP, Weird Faith, an aptly named outing considering the faith the artist had in herself all these years. This is her first album since her breakthrough 2021 LP History of a Feeling. The album skyrocketed Diaz to the spotlight after decades of toiling away at her craft. The album’s runaway success landed her on tour with Harry Styles, both as an opener and member of his touring band, playing shows across the globe. After the wild ride her last album sent her on, more eyes are on Diaz than ever. Weird Faith could make or break Diaz’s future.
Contextualizing the album in such a way only adds to this listening experience. Weird Faith is a 12-tracking outing with Diaz surrendering to the spotlight, deploying minimal arrangements that emphasize her stellar vocals and poetic songwriting. Some songs are so vulnerable and emotionally driven that even the coldest pop critique will garner empathy for Diaz. This isn’t a break-up album and it isn’t even all that sad, Diaz pens from the perspective of a budding relationship. She personifies the confusion of young love and sets its moments of intense orchestral pop down to ambient balladry. The consistency is in her questioning, Diaz is seemingly in a transitional period, a time with plenty of confusion for anybody. She honed that confusion into a tight tracklist with glimmering melodies and deep truths that unfold over minimal yet potent pop acoustics.
It is easy to take Weird Faith at face value, but there is something much deeper happening in Diaz’s songwriting. The album seems to center around a new relationship and all the quirks and fears that come with falling in love, but the relationship explored is not a romantic one. Diaz has reached a new pinnacle in her career and with it, legions of fans and fame, two complicated concepts to have a healthy relationship with. Diaz’s fear of losing everything she works for fueled this statement piece of an album as she questions its longevity and legitimacy via blunt poetry. That bluntness is necessary for an album like this. There is no time for fancy metaphors or literary prowess when your anxiety is reaching previously unknown heights. These realities anchor us down as this mostly ambient outing features whimsical strumming to get lost in.
The arrangements Diaz picked for this album were just as important as the album’s impact. There is not a lot of flash to gawk at here, Diaz seemingly didn’t want anything to outshine her. That was the right choice, while some of the arrangements bleed together and follow a similar formula of minimal acoustics that lead into epic crescendos. You won’t notice these similarities on the first listen, Diaz is too powerful to let that happen. The very honed sonic landscape of this album was a necessity, at a pivotal moment in her career the last thing Diaz needs is danceable tempos or added elements. This allowed her to put her full self out there and pen some of the most moving songs of her career.
Madi Diaz has just about every music fan watching her, and she didn’t waste the opportunity. Weird Faith is a stunning amalgamation of experiences and how a new relationship can contain just as much confusion as it does happiness. For 12 powerful tracks, Diaz navigates beautifully structured arrangements while keeping her head on a swivel, making sure everything isn’t falling apart. Weird Faith needed to be good and Diaz did more than make a good album, she penned an opus.
