Issue II Final Layout (1)

04 | OPINION the hourglass
ALBUM ALC VE
MOSS: An indie folk reflection of identity and past experiences
BETTI PANG ‘23
Staff Writer
Maya Hawke’s sophomore
album MOSS was released
on September 23, 2022.
After a successful acting run
on the past two seasons of Stranger Things
and the recently released film Do Revenge,
Hawke takes a step back with MOSS’s
honest, stripped-back acoustic tracks.
The album is a bolder continuation of
her debut album, Blush, and reflects deeply
on her childhood and adolescence. In an
interview with Flood Magazine, Hawke
says that during the pandemic, she needed
to return to parts of her past that she had
pushed aside and go “back to all these
things that were mine and figure out what
weeds I have to pull out so the flowers I’d
forgotten about can bloom.”
The first single “Therése” takes
inspiration from “Thérèse Dreaming,”
a controversial painting by Balthus. In
2017, the Metropolitan Museum of Art
declined to take down the painting in
response to a petition claiming that the
portrait romanticized the objectification
of children. As one of Hawke’s more
daring tracks, “Therése” begins the MOSS
era with an earnest exploration of public
perception versus internal dreams and
goals. In a press statement, she said that
the song is about “the secret spaces we
build where we are free to be ourselves,
in a world that is always intentionally or
systematically misunderstanding us.”
“
The song is about
‘the secret spaces we
build where we are
free to be ourselves,
in a world that is
always intentionally
or systematically
misunderstanding us’
“
These ideas are woven into the
dichotomous production of the song,
which begins with guitar and vocals, then
adds a stomping pulse and echoing voices,
leaving the listener with a haunted yet
content feeling.
“Sweet Tooth,” MOSS’s second
single, captures the comfort of always
having someone to depend on. Using a sore
tooth as a metaphor, Hawke embraces the
contrast between sweetness and decay, as
well as joy and grief. The upbeat track has a
playful guitar melody and lyrics, conveying
childhood lessons that are continuously
relearned throughout adulthood.
BETTI’S REVIEW
RATING: 8/10
FAVORITE SONG: Luna Moth
WOULD RECOMMEND: “Hiatus”
“Luna Moth,” the third single on the
album, is one of my personal favorites.
The song deals with the choking feelings
of self-hatred and guilt. In true MOSS
fashion, Hawke sings delicately over
gentle acoustic guitars, and reveals some
of the most hard hitting lines I have ever
heard, including “I don’t need anyone to
hurt me, I can do that myself; I don’t see
why you would want me, if I could I would
be anybody else.” In its quiet honesty and
confessional disillusion, it feels like a
sibling of “Just for Today” by Clairo, or
“this is me trying” by Taylor Swift.
In “Hiatus,” Hawke describes
the painful yearning for a relationship
that simply isn’t working. With tender
descriptions of a significant other and
references to the film industry, the track
beautifully puts raw emotion on display.
The chorus contains some of my
favorite lines in the album, such as: “I
know you bleed glitter and you have a
heart of stone, but all I really want’s an
actor of my own.” The image conveys
both the inaccessibility of her partner’s
vulnerability, and the honesty of their
intentions.
“
In true MOSS fashion,
Hawke sings delicately
over gentle acoustic
guitars, and reveals
some of the most hard
hitting lines I have
ever heard.
“
As the daughter of Uma Thurman
and Ethan Hawke, Maya Hawke both
acknowledges her nepotism and uses it
well. Collaborating with artists like Will
Graefe and Christian Lee Hutson, Hawke
creates an autumn indie folk dream. While
some songs on MOSS tend to blur together
in sound and theme, the album captures
the magic of pure feelings through delicate
vocals and strings. Through these songs,
we see ourselves, and imagine what could
have been.
Design and graphics by Greyson Walko ‘25 and Julia Baur ‘25