If you haven’t heard of Maita, the Portland indie band based around its namesake singer/songwriter Maria Maita-Keppeler is back with new music, following up on their 2022 album ‘I Just Want to Be Wild For You’. 

The new album, ‘Loneliness’ was released this February via Kill Rock Stars, with Maria/Maita providing a lovely story of heartache, enchantment and reflection in this album, featuring just the singer’s pensive vocals and her nylon string guitar.

the twist of loneliness

The twist of Loneliness is that she’s made this new album featuring exactly the same songs as on the previous album ‘I Just Want to Be Wild For You’; whereas the last album was stylistically what we’re used to from the full band, swaying between full-on indie rock and atmospheric indie folk (wweek.com describes it as “Mitski covering introspective indie-folk ballads of 2005”, she’s taken the same songs and reimagined them as gentle acoustic murmurings.

Of course the new album, featuring. as it does just Maria and her acoustic guitar, doesn’t help with the slight confusion over whether this is a singer-songwriter with a band or a band with a singer with the same name (as fortherabbits.net says “MAITA is the full-band vehicle for the songwriting of Maria Maita-Keppeler.”) Remember Blondie?

Maria/Maita sings with a colourful conviction

Maria/Maita/Maita-Keppeler sings with a colorful conviction, sometimes quite strong and also vulnerable. Her style is all her own, and has a mesmerizing quality in her delivery. It’s hard to think of a comparison. If you’re looking for something to listen to that’s acoustic and easy listening, with great vocals and thoughtful lyrics, this could be your album-on-repeat for this spring!

We are looking forward to see what’s next, with a potential tour in Germany coming up. We’ll keep you posted.

Maita on Facebook | Maita on Instagram | Matia Website

Article by Al Helfand and Noel Maurice

Main photo copyright Anna Larina