Maisie Peters Returns With Heart and Hurt in “Audrey Hepburn” and “You You You”
Maisie Peters via Instagram
Maisie Peters has always been a songwriter who maps the terrain of the heart with startling clarity. With the release of “Audrey Hepburn” and the surprise drop “You You You”, her first new music since 2023’s The Good Witch, Peters opens the door to her MP3 era, a chapter defined by contrast: peace and pain, beginnings and aftermath, the tender and the raw.
“Audrey Hepburn” is the sunrise. Written in the calm that followed years of restlessness, it’s a portrait of finding love that feels both grounding and transcendent. Peters describes it as “the perfect beginning to this era,” and the song feels like one: delicate yet sure-footed, pastoral in tone and spirit. The lyrics paint an idyllic scene, “take me back to the country, to the hills and to the spires”, where love is not performative but restorative, trading “afterparties” for “forests” and “fires.” The imagery is cinematic yet deeply human; when she sings, “You swore I looked like Audrey Hepburn that night,” it lands not as vanity but as vulnerability, the kind of compliment that softens a guarded heart.
Musically, the track leans into Peters’ instinct for warmth and intimacy. Her voice glows over organic instrumentation, carrying a sense of earned serenity. She’s not the girl dissecting heartbreak anymore, she’s the woman who’s learned how to let herself rest in love. The bridge encapsulates this growth: “Love was a myth, now it’s my morning coffee / The one you leave me by our bed.” It’s domestic, simple, and quietly profound, a declaration that real love is not loud, but sustaining.
Then comes “You You You”, the night to Audrey’s day. Peters called the songs “north and south poles of each other,” and the juxtaposition couldn’t be more striking. Where “Audrey Hepburn” breathes contentment, “You You You” is suffocating. It’s a post-breakup reckoning written from the trenches, all-consuming and claustrophobic in its obsession. The repeated refrains, “I eat about you,” “I sleep about you,” “I breathe about you”, spiral into compulsion, illustrating the disorienting gravity of grief.
The production mirrors the turmoil: raw, pulsing, and slightly chaotic. Peters sounds haunted but self-aware, documenting the kind of heartbreak she once described as “eating, sleeping, drinking heartbreak.” It’s a mirror image of her past work, the emotional core of The Good Witch seen now through hindsight. That perspective is what makes “You You You” hit harder. It’s not written from inside the wound, but from the clarity that follows, recognizing how “consumed” she was by sadness and how far she’s come since.
Taken together, these two songs mark the evolution of Maisie Peters, not just as an artist but as a person. “Audrey Hepburn” and “You You You” are emotional opposites that rely on each other for meaning. One cannot exist without the other: the light is richer for the shadow that precedes it. Peters captures that duality beautifully, offering a glimpse into an album era that promises depth, vulnerability, and balance.
For longtime listeners, this release feels like homecoming, a return to the introspective storytelling that first defined her, but with a maturity that only time, heartbreak, and real love could teach. In her own words, “experiencing meaningful, deep love has given me permission to love myself.” These songs make you believe it.
