Fatal Optimist

Arriving just one year after the Grammy-nominated *Weird Faith*, Diaz’s seventh album dramatically pares back her sound; much of the album is just her and an acoustic guitar, with full-band instrumentation making its return for the album’s cathartic closing title track. The minimalist structures of *Fatal Optimist* were born out of a breakup and a period of self-enforced solitude, and with co-producer Gabe Wax (Soccer Mommy, Zach Bryan) at the boards, these 11 songs ring out with warmth and quiet devastation. Diaz has always been known for emotional missives that cut close to the bone, but moments like the reflective pain of “Ambivalence” and the not-looking-back kiss-off “Lone Wolf” are as direct as she’s ever been on record.

Mostly singing alone, accompanied only by her acoustic guitar, the Nashville singer-songwriter places heartache under a microscope on the third LP in a loose trilogy of breakup records.

Madi Diaz's new album, 'Fatal Optimist,' scales back her sound, but not her devastating honesty. This Harry Styles collaborator has done it again

For many reasons, it may seem something of a stretch to compare Madi Diaz with Bruce Springsteen, but the timing of the release of 'Fatal Optimist'

On her confessional new album Fatal Optimist, Madi Diaz lays everything bare and achieves a certain wisdom through the heartbreak. 

Fatal Optimist by Madi Diaz album review by Maria Luísa Richter for Northern Transmissions. The singer/songwriter's LP is out today via ANTI-