I Get Into Trouble is the new album release from singer-songwriter Tori Zietsch AKA Maple Glider, and it is every bit as captivating as its predecessor, her 2021 debut album To Enjoy Is The Only Thing. Whereas To Enjoy… was an artist’s first steps into sharing intimate aspects of their life, I Get Into Trouble is a more assured, deeper dive into the inner world and outer forces that have shaped her life. It “delves back into her Christian childhood while deconstructing her relationship to her body, alongside concepts of consent and shame”, the fallout on her sexuality and thoughts of “consent and shame”. Zietsch says “this album feels more like an opening up because there are things I wasn’t feeling ready to publicly share through songs, but now I finally feel ready”.
The arrangements can be as sparse as simple the voice and guitar ‘You At The Top Of The Driveway’ (where you hear the creak of the room and the intake of breath before a line) or bring the soft touch of hazy folk on tracks like ‘You’re Gonna Be A Daddy’ and ‘For You And All The Songs We Loved’, but you also have the country-feel of ‘Don’t Kiss Me’ where the song gradually builds into a fuzzed up tumult over the repetition of the song’s final line “Sometimes my own body, doesn’t feel like my body, but definitely don’t kiss me”.
On ‘Dinah’ many of the album’s themes come together. Based on a bible story, Dinah is victim-blamed for being sexually assaulted. The track itself might lean more towards pop but the simmering anger in the lyrics (read them at the bottom of the review) perfectly dissect this double standard of how non-believers are perceived when the church itself is not always a safe space “So I’ve been in the church making sure no one’s looking up my skirt. But I do not feel safe here, I wanna feel alive”.
There are not many singer-songwriters who can be so honest about their lives and avoid the beartrap of gloomy self-indulgence. Tori Zietsch/Maple Glider is able to write songs that embrace the terrible things life can throw at you and still retain a sense of humour. For example, the vibrator ‘microphone’ in the video to ‘Dinah’ and the line “My bank account’s not healthy and neither’s my sex life” in ‘FOMO’. Zietsch says about song writing “You know, it helps clean the brain out and allows me to sort of deal with things and understand things better.”
Listening to I Get Into Trouble you understand at a cellular level that Tori Zietsch’s voice is truly exceptional, with the fluidity to move from a delicate near-whisper to a powerful crescendo. It’s a voice that has no problem sitting alongside with great singers like Joni Mitchell, Jeff Buckley, Sumie, or K.D. Lang. In a world where so many people value power, melisma and exaggerated emotion (what writer David Hepworth brilliantly describes as “lungs of a whale and tears of a crocodile”) it is utterly refreshing to hear someone with an abundance of emotional truth. In keeping with her name, Maple Glider’s star is most definitely on the rise.
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Dinah Lyrics:
I met Dinah at the Bible study when I was eight years old
She was just a story to them but to me she was more than they told
They said, “Be God fearing, don’t be messing with those non-believing”
So I’ve been in the church making sure no one’s looking up my skirt
But I do not feel safe here, I wanna feel alive
Do you thrive knowing that our God favors you over me, dear?
Dinah’s old man said he thought all of her girlfriends were whores
In the end she got exactly what she’d been searching for
When that man took her out for a spin
She said no, but he did not listen
So I’ve been in the church making sure no one’s looking up my skirt
But I do not feel safe here, I wanna feel alive
Do you thrive knowing that our God favors you over me, dear?
The same thing happened to me when I was only seventeen
Do you think I got what I deserved?
Do you think God’s just trying to be seen?
By us non-believers? By us non-God fearers?
So I’ve been in the church making sure no one’s looking up my skirt
But I do not feel safe here, I wanna feel alive
Do you thrive knowing that our God favors you over me dear, daddy?
Two witness rule, oh, that’s cool
Go ahead and play the fool while I do not feel safe here
I’ve been in the church, but the church is in my skirt
I’ve been in the church, but the church is in my skirt
I’ve been in the church, but the church is in my skirt
And my skirt defines my worth in the church
Dear, daddy
Review by Paul F Cook
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