Maya Hawke
Moss
MOM+POP
On Maya Hawke’s sophomore album Moss, the songwriter and actress examines her identity as a whole, from her sexuality, to her family, to other personal relationships. This is an album which likely resonates with a wide audience, yet as a listener, it feels so personal to Hawke—the musicality has a singer/songwriter energy to it, but there are so many layers to these songs. It’s easy to get the tone of each track the moment the tune is introduced.
Throughout Moss, Hawke sings about her life as an actress and her family—about her parent’s marriage and how she wished she could have seen a time when they were really in love. While we know that Hawke could frame her life around Hollywood stardom—her own or her parents’ before her—Moss gives us a better view of Hawke and her opinions without them being swayed by the public’s vision, offering up an intimate portrait of herself that feels rare among actresses of her stature. Lyrically, she provides her story in an honest manner, while in the music is stripped down to the necessities in order to leave the focus on the story.
I was lucky enough to see her perform the album at Largo in Los Angeles, where I got so much out of her explanations for the songs. Before performing “Over,” for example, she described how it was inspired by a twisted poem she read where men would see a beautiful woman and kill her as a way to preserve her beauty; then they’d write a poem about it. Hawke took that idea and wrote a beautifully impactful song. When describing “Hiatus,” which gives the listener a peek into her acting career, she quoted her hairdresser, stating, “Actresses are a little more than a woman, and actors are a little less than a man.”
Moss is an expressive album where Maya Hawke has no fear in exposing her truest feelings and thoughts, often from the distance afforded by singing from the perspective of another person. It’s a beautiful record that captures her significant—and unique—point of view.
