Maple Glider remains utterly compelling on I Get Into Trouble

With her follow-up, I Get Into Trouble, the Australian tunesmith continues to revel in lush hooks, evocative textures, and sensual vocals. Additionally, Zietsch’s new songs address complex subjects such as abuse, religion, and relational ambivalence, never collapsing into easy truisms or comfortable stereotypes. The result is a sophomore release that is compelling from start to finish.

“Dinah” offers an anti-Rockwellian take on church life, including the story of a friend who was raped (“she said no but he did not listen”). Zietsch goes on to declare, “the same thing happened to me”. The track is a milestone for Zietsch, exemplifying how her melodic sense has deepened, how her vignettes are more fleshed-out and accessible. Also, Zietsch delivers her wry social critique via a buoyant melody that Karen Carpenter would envy. The creepiness of the tale, contrasted with a bubblegum-ish tune, is brought into stark relief.

“Two Years” is one of Zietsch’s more sultry vocal takes. The singer attempts to leave a relationship after a year but is talked into staying (“I tried to leave and you said / baby please let’s sink into this new thing”). The same thing happens at the two-year mark. Zietsch’s dreamy melody again aptly contrasts with her portrait of a person who is unable to marshal her energies, exit a relationship, and claim the life she wants. The song stands as a startling yet pop-inflected commentary on “settling”.

As with many of the tracks on I Get Into Trouble, “Don’t Kiss Me” lends itself to various interpretations. Zietsch’s narrative may address child abuse but may, on the other hand, more generally convey how PTSD can play a role in any romance. While Zietsch’s debut brimmed with intriguing images and insights, she rarely struck this level of refinement – capturing how desire and aversion can coexist, making for a psychologically (and sexually) complicated situation. Replete with a chorus that references dissociation vis a vis an earworm melody (“Sometimes my own body / doesn’t feel like my own body”), “Don’t Kiss Me” is one of 2023’s more riveting tracks.

On “You’re Gonna Be a Daddy”, Zietsch congratulates a friend or ex-lover on entering into fatherhood while questioning her own trajectory (“Lately I’ve had this worried feeling / like time is gaining meaning without you in my life”). The melody is laidback and lowkey yet enticing, supported by steamy back-up vocals. “I just want to get to know you”, Zietsch sings, though one has the feeling that this probably won’t happen. “Do You” similarly portrays a relationship that gravitates toward estrangement, Zietsch’s voice soaring above a foundation of light percussion and understated synths.

Zietsch taps into a Hollywood theme-song vibe on closer “Scream”, still exuding an outsider energy. When she reflects, “While everybody else is sleeping in their beds / I’m speaking to myself to get the words out of my head”, Midwife’s moribund diarism comes to mind. Zietsch, however, is less direct, more oblique, poetic. In terms of production, Weyes Blood’s recent mixes are a possible comparison, the cleaner, less murky soundscape lightening the mood, even as the lyrics point to an imminent crisis. The song serves as an ongoing reminder of Zietsch’s attunement to lyrical, energetic, and sonic paradoxes, her knack for forging fertile juxtapositions.

To Enjoy Is the Only Thing was an exciting introduction to Zietsch’s aesthetic. I Get Into Trouble, however, documents how in the course of two years Zietsch has evolved considerably, in terms of vision and craft. Alongside a natural tendency to sustain tensions and avoid convenient certainties – what the poet Keats called negative capability – is a sophisticated pop flair. With I Get Into Trouble, Zietsch emerges as one of the more eloquent singer-songwriters of her generation.