Melbournian Maple Glider ( the artist Tori Zietsch) has announced the release of her debut album ‘To Enjoy is The Only Thing’ out on 25 June 2021 through Partisan Records and has unveiled the single ‘Baby Tiger’ in anticipation. ‘Baby Tiger’ is fragile and beautiful: Glider’s voice a delicate whisper across a simple acoustic guitar and piano base: sparse and atmospheric and filled with a sense of pain and resolution.
There is a haunting, elegiac feel to the track (with the video, starring Zeitsch’s flatmate’s delightful cat Coriander), reflecting Zietsch’s own challenges after spending time in the UK:
‘Baby Tiger’ was written soon after I’d returned home from Brighton. I was really struggling with my mental health, but I was going out and kind of using dating as a distraction from dealing with it. It never really worked. I’d just end up feeling worse when I was alone. Coriander hates closed doors. She’ll always want to know what you’re doing on the other side. It kind of became comforting to hear her scratch at my door. It was something that felt constant and unwavering and regular at a time when I was a bit vacant. Her energy made me feel lighter. I’m very detached from the ‘man’ I address in the song, but I beg for him to comfort me. Though I am feeling unwell, I am pretty certain that it is temporary. I know that ‘I’ll come back to me soon.’ My housemate says she sees this as a kind of happy song because it features Coriander, and I really love that perspective, because even though I was in a bad place when I wrote it, there is an element of hopefulness.
The expression is ultimately one of empowerment and survival through difficult times, a relatable emotion given the vicissitudes of the past 18 months. There is an exquisite and moving expression in the lyrics, simple, proud and stoic:
Comfort me
Baby Tiger’s scratching at the door
She’s seen
Someone she hasn’t seen before
I’m okay Baby Tiger
‘Baby Tiger’ is haunting and ethereal and signals an important rising artist in Maple Glider:
You can download/stream the single here. ‘To Enjoy is the Only Thing’ by Mapler Glider is released on 25 June 2021 via Partisan Records. Pre-order/ pre-save it here.
TRACK LISTING
As Tradition
Swimming
View From This Side
Friend
Be Mean, It’s Kinder Than Crying
Good Thing
Baby Tiger
Performer
Mama It’s Christmas
