Madi Diaz with new album “Fatal Optimist”: Folk in its purest form

“I’m the queen of the silver lining,” sings Madi Diaz in the song “Good Liar,” “I’m best at always seeing the bright side of things.” A touching alto voice that breathes in higher registers, sighs, and feels every word, honest even in the self-sketch of a good liar.

"Fatal Optimist" is the title of the 39-year-old Nashville singer and songwriter's seventh album. Diaz has always prided herself on her optimism, writes the New York Times (NYT) in its profile of the singer.

The album features (almost) only Diaz and her guitar. She sings about the destructive power of love, about separation from a lover whose identity remains secret, yet who isn't swifted down. It's about resilience and the return to oneself from feeling alienated.

It takes two listens before you discover the quality of the melodies in this spartan sound. But the urgency of the open phrases is immediately audible, much more clearly than if Diaz's voice were encased in the armor of a band sound. Someone is really getting to the heart of the matter here. The NYT raves about an "acoustic guitar so naked (...) you can hear her fingers gliding over the strings and clinging to them."

The even skeletal sound had already been announced with Diaz's Christmas single "Kid on Christmas." Der Spiegel magazine calls it her "Nebraska" moment, comparing it to the discrepancy between Bruce Springsteen's fairground rock on "The River" (1982) and the lo-fi of the American noir follow-up "Nebraska" (1982). It doesn't quite fit. Diaz's predecessor, "Weird Faith," which spoke of new love and vulnerability, was somewhat more richly instrumented in some songs, but ultimately also acoustically influenced.

Two Grammy nominations (including Best Folk Album) in February of this year pointed Diaz toward a more commercial path, a path she refused to take. On "Weird Faith," you could hear the heartbreak in her voice; on "Fatal Optimist," you could almost hear her heart beating.

The daughter of a Peruvian mother and a Danish father was five years old when she started playing the piano. As a teenager, she switched to the guitar. Her father taught her Alice in Chains songs. Her debut album was released in 2007, and her records were increasingly appreciated by Americana fans.

Her closest approach to pop came in 2022, when she first opened Harry Styles' concerts. In 2023, the English pop star, touched by her intensity, brought her into his live band as a guitarist and singer for the European leg of his tour.

The title track at the end does rock. The melodies have now been absorbed, and the music magazine "Uncut" has dubbed it "raw and gorgeously melodic."

And then you put the needle on the vinyl a third time and wonder if the optimist isn't hopeless after all. "I can tell how well I'm doing in life by how many damn horoscope podcasts and apps I have on my phone," Diaz revealed to Rolling Stone. "If there are more than two, that's not a good sign."

Madi Diaz – “Fatal Optimist” (Anti) – the album is already out