MAITREYA CORSO by Maya Hawke // Album Review

MAITREYA CORSO feels like Maya Hawke's most fully realized piece of storytelling yet - a record that is built on the beautiful, intentional writing that allows her talents to shine the brightest. The album's title comes from a persona that Maya created, who she said is a "...magical misfit, whose sheer inability to adapt to the surrounding world allows her to create a world of her own, and to explore the positive and negative power of the ego." Much of the album is rooted in the notion of questioning whether inner happiness and fulfillment is ever something to be fully achieved, or rather a never‑ending goal to persist and reach toward through the different seasons of life.

The title itself reflects the duality at the heart of the project; Maitreya is drawn from Buddhist tradition and Corso is derived from the last name of Beat poet Gregory Corso. Together, they frame the album as something deeply personal and artful. It is often existential and easily her strongest and most ambitious project yet. This album largely depicts the journey of discovering what it means to love, find oneself and find escape in a world that is constantly shifting. The sense of escapism is pertinent throughout the album, reflecting the fantasy world she was aiming to retreat into during its creation. That world is brought to life visually throughout Maya's own watercolor paintings, which appear on the album's cover and accompanying visuals.

This record was made with her husband and frequent collaborator Christian Lee Hutson, alongside some of the other songwriters and producers that have shaped much of her music up to this point, like Johnathan Low, Will Graefe, and Benjamin Lazar Davis, among others. With this being her fourth release, Maya is clearly stepping into some of her most developed and confident work yet, both in the sound she's crafting and the approach she is choosing to take with her music.

Sonically, this project centers around a folk-centered sound that is deeply personal and self-aware in the ways some of her past work sometimes lacked. There is an emphasis on the charm and distinct voice that makes Maya's experiences uniquely her own. An artist like Joni Mitchell stands out as an obvious touchstone for Maya as an artist, but the album also carries the modern specificity that echoes the diaristic tone of Taylor Swift or Phoebe Bridgers' work as well. The full focus of this project is within the lyricism, which is often deeply poetic and introspective.

This album is coming at such a pivotal moment in her life and career as well. As someone who just closed a massive chapter of her life with Stranger Things ending in late 2025, and having several new major film roles on the horizon, this project feels deliberately like a counterweight to the intensity of her other artistic endeavors. With this album, she takes a stripped-back approach to making art in contrast to the massive franchises she has been apart of in recent years. The soft warmth and intentionality of these songs stand out as a reclamation of that side of herself and honoring the most intimate corners of her life.

She opens with the album with the stunning "Love of My Life", which sets up the questions that reverberate throughout the entire record. In the chorus she sings, "What if I got what I wanted? What if I was who I wanna be? What if I got what I wanted? What if I knew how to be?"

Throughout the song, she wonders where the love of her life is in that moment as she's writing, not knowing who he is yet, imagining who he will be, how he will act and what their dynamic together might look like. The longing for the moment she will finally fall in love with someone again, and the uncertainty of when that time will come is at the heart of this song.

From there, she moves into the album's lead single "Devil You Know", which also served as the powerful introduction into the world she created within this project. She writes in a wordy, stream-of-consciousness style throughout the verses - embedding so many sharp, impactful lines along the way. Maya circles back to this performance style throughout the latter half of the album, as well - namely on songs like "Last Thoughts on Morning Star" and "Terms of Estrangement". "Devil You Know" captures the self-preservation she has had to prioritize in her life, not wanting to lose sight of her ambitions or lose herself in a world that is constantly trying to reshape you, or make a deal with the devil, so to speak.

It is deeply personal and delves into some of the difficult experiences that she has faced throughout her life growing up in the entertainment industry. "The goal posts always move, no one's honеst with you and the point you're trying to prove is lost," she sings in the first verse. "Your life is recovery or shooting the moon, you're hovering over the room, people muttering, talking 'bout you and you're still not doing what you know you could do."

Despite seeing the horrors that the industry can bring, she remains determined to hold onto her creative freedom and her ambitions above all else - sometimes even to her own detriment. She finishes the song with the question, "I still want it, what's my problem?"

So much of what this album represents and comes down to thematically is at the forefront of "Lioness". It embodies so much of who she is underneath it all - with the ethos of her as an artist in every form, both as a songwriter and actress. "I work in mysterious ways" largely feels like the thesis of the album that she repeatedly sings throughout this song. "Tell mе where to stand, tell me what to say, tell me who I am, I can do it different," she sings on the bridge, which similarly is rooted in the themes of this overall album.

"Lioness" in many ways also feels the most reflective of the self‑portrait on the cover, with an emphasis on the parts of herself she is trying to understand and reclaim. As an actress, Maya has spoken often about the ways she wants to reclaim her image, feeling like she can be so overexposed and commercialized at times. This self-portrait and much of the lyricism throughout this project is rooted in the desire to reclaim autonomy and take a more handmade, personal interpretation of her face. "Trapped me on the rollercoaster, now they've closed the gates for good, it feels different than I thought it would," she sings in the third verse. "I still know it when they dim the lights, watching Sadie talk to God through the lav mic at the bottom of it all, there's a big dream, grass growing back through the concrete".

The song is dedicated to her friend and Stranger Things co‑star Sadie Sink, as Maya reflects on a moment on set when she wasn't feeling inspired until she saw Sadie filming a scene and was reminded of why she loves doing all of this in the first place. "I came into set as a background player in a scene she was in, and I remembered how magical acting is. I just watched her pick a spirit out of the universe and make the whole room quiet and speak truth and turn something from a game of playing pretend into something extremely authentic," Maya recalled in an interview with Rolling Stone. "It was a kick in my butt - bring it every time, every second. Don't get lazy for one second."

Much of these ruminations on being an actress and the broader commentary of her time in the entertainment industry continue to be a major recurring theme of MAITREYA CORSO. "Heavy Rain" is one of the most beautiful songs on the album melodically, circling back to the criticisms, exposure, and the constant attention she's received, and how she's learned to navigate negativity, shifting paradigms, and the ebb and flow of life in the public eye.

It's ultimately a song about lessons learned and the emotional recalibration that comes with growing up under scrutiny. "You say I'm too hard on myself, I know it's just one of my many flaws" and "If you stick around, they will call you a legend, think twice about showing them your secret weapons" stand out as two of the most striking lines.

"Last Living Lost Cause" follows with an intimate instrumental that gradually builds into the chorus. It's one of the songs on this album that sounds most reminiscent of boygenius in its structure and softness, with a slightly more whimsical tone that is threaded throughout the entirety of this project. The gentle quality to it that comes up on so many corners of MAITREYA CORSO is best embodied as she sings the bridge to this song. "You're easy to love, hard to believe, when you show me the man I want you to be," Maya sings. "I have known, happy geniuses, maybe nothing matters, but maybe nothing's meaningless". Songs like this represent the heart of this album so well, allowing her wisdom and insight to shine through above all else.

The soft intimacy of Maya's writing comes through on the beautiful "Bring Home My Man". "There is no end to knowing you, like blue bleeding into blue, the ocean pulls the sky in close, the horizon line, the highs and lows," she sings in the opening verse. "I know I'll change, I'm not sure how and you won't stay who you are now". With this song, she looks toward the future with her partner, acknowledging the ways in which they will inevitably change over time, yet still choosing to return to one another, finding their way back to each other through every season. It takes the listener through the imagined journey of their lives together and all of the places the future may lead them. It feels even more special knowing that she is making this music with her partner, as well.

"Our bodies, they will fall apart, our blood slows down and stops our hearts," Maya sings on the bridge. "You touch me where time cannot and if you ever feel afraid and think you need to run away, I'll never tell you not to leave, I'll just trust you'll come back to me".

As Maya takes the listener through the future with her husband, she simultaneously brings us into the past on songs like "Great Minds" and "Green Dragon" - both of which are deeply personal, introspective reminiscences of her family, childhood and experiences from that formative time of her life. "Great Minds" in particular stands out as one of the best songs on the album, written from such a diaristic and specific point of view, elevated by it's twinkling production.

"I wanted to grow up to be just like you, it nevеr was an option, though," she sings in the chorus. "You say you see yourself in me, sometimеs great minds think differently". The song seemingly delves into her close relationship with her brother and the ways they leaned on each other throughout their childhoods and into adulthood. "Green Dragon" goes into more specific memories of their unconventional childhood and the ways some of those times shaped her into adulthood, sometimes for ways she can't even explain, and even then admits that "I'm not the best at playing nice or telling white lies, but I'm always on your side".

The theme song for the character this project is based on - Maitreya Corso, which in many ways is an extension of Maya herself - is best depicted on "Maitreya and the Way Back", a two part song that stands among her most directly autobiographical moments on the entire album. It represents the journey this project depicts beautifully; fully embracing the flaws that make us human, the parts of ourselves we're still trying to understand, and the growth that comes from that self-reflection.

The distinct split into multiple segments reflects the time she spent working with her different collaborators, and the bits and pieces of ideas they wanted to weave together into a single piece. It was mostly recorded live in one take, and the raw nature of the song really gives it such an authentic feeling. The people she makes music with deeply shaped the eclectic sound of this song, and what the rest of MAITREYA CORSO eventually became as well.

The act of finding contentment in life, which shines through as a personal goal that she was wanting to achieve with this album, is fully culminated on "Maitreya and the Way Back". In an interview with Rolling Stone, Maya opened up about the process of making this song. She said, "I've been working with a lot of the same people for as long as I've been making music. Benjamin Lazar Davis, Will Graefe, and Christian Lee Hutson, my husband. And we have been writing together all for a really long time, and I wanted to do something where each person wrote a different section of the song with me, kind of in isolation, and then we combined them. I thought that would be cool. And we ended up combining it all in a live take."

She also went on to explain the emotional core of this track in the same interview; "I really wanted you to feel a love story. There's a love story in this album - in dealing with ambition and dealing with fear and dealing with history, as you grow as a person, I think you become more and more available to be with the love of your life. If you're not yourself, you're not gonna find your person. And so you've gotta reckon with the mirror before you can reach out your hand. So I wanted to tell a full love story, but I didn't want the album to be 20 songs long. So we wanted to jam a big story in together."

That love story unfolds throughout both halves of the song. "And when we talk nonstop and the words run out, it's like the temperature drops and time slows down and there's nothing you need that you don't have right now," she sings in the chorus of the first half. Later, in the second half Maya admits, "You say you wanna dance with me, but I'm no dancer, say that you're in love with me and I'll give you my stock answer, I love you too much, too much to take any more than I already have, I love you too much, too much to tell you half-truths I can't take back".

The second half shifts into something more surrendered and certain; "You didn't know what you were missing, never been this good before," Maya sings in the chorus. "I wanted you then, now I want you more." That progression from hesitation to acceptance and from fear to openness, mirrors the emotional arc at the heart of the entire record. It's such a powerful way to close out the album's narrative as the second‑to‑last track, fully allowing herself the space to be open to love and to be herself without reservation. It shows how far she's come within this project alone.

In the outro, she returns to the opening questions she asked herself on "Love of My Life", the first song on the album. "What if I got what I wanted? What if I was who I wanna be? What if I got what I wanted? What if I was who I wanna be?" It's a beautiful full-circle moment that mirrors where she began, but is now reflective of the version of herself she is now, who she has been reaching for all along.

Although "Maitreya and the Way Back" does largely feel conclusionary of the overall thesis and mission of this album, "Dream House" is such a subtle way to fully close out the record. It is such a quaint, sweet ode to her husband and the new life they're building together. She and Christian harmonize together throughout, which adds even more symbolism and depth to the song.

"Building our dream house up on the hillside, I get scared sometimes, he tells me I'm strong," Maya sings in the opening verse. "Just somebody's son and somebody's daughter, fresh running water, guess nothing is wrong". There's a soft whimsy radiating through this song, as she depicts the way they are together enjoying the simplicities of life and growing alongside each other. It holds such a gentle kind of optimism for what the future holds.

"Our drеam house is in my imagination, but if I'm patient, we'll find a spot, what grows in the shade will thrive in the sunshine, taking a joyride, a question to pop". This song moves from the imagined feeling of love that she sang about on the first song, to now having the real thing. It is a stunning way to close out the album in that way, with the final lines closing that emotional arc; "It's all in my mind, but as real as your touch".