MXMTOON recently released her new album The Masquerade. The song “Prom Dress” is the highlight of the whole album. Before hearing about this album, I had only known her for her song, “Prom Dress,” and was interested in listening to more.

Maia is a nineteen-year-old girl from Oakland, CA. She has a strong bond with her audience and has many followers on YouTube and TikTok. 

She wants to use her platform to speak out on issues. “As a young bisexual woman of color from a family of immigrants, a lot of current events directly affect who I am.”

Maia said, “I firmly believe it’s my obligation and opportunity to speak on issues that affect us all.” I feel that a strong fan base is important, and making songs based on topics important to you is the key to a powerful song, but they only get you so far when your music lacks rhythm and rhyme. 

The album is a mix of lo-fi and pop music, but I personally can’t see her music going very far past where it is now with “Prom Dress” being her only popular song. Her music is unlike anything else, which can be really unique, but some of her other songs are very generic. I can’t blame her. What’s popular, sells.

Her lyrics are fine, but her songs tend to lack that catchy tune that makes the listener want to sing along. I personally feel that this will be her biggest struggle in making music, if not, her downfall. 

“Late Nights” is a song about her struggle to sleep due to all the thoughts inside her head. It talks about a rejection and how hard it is to express her feelings and how she’s afraid she will scare someone away. She says she is “captivated” by this person. The whole situation is keeping her from sleeping. I’m not a fan of love songs so this is not top on my list.

The song “Seasonal Depression” is about the sadness and cold she feels inside. She sings about some days she struggles to get out of bed and she feels like her days are just coming and going. There is no doubt the lyrics are depressing (thus the title), but the song is set to an upbeat and fun tune which helps make it less sad.

Sadly I feel “Prom Dress” may have been a “one hit wonder.” I wish more of her music was like “Prom Dress,” in other words, more songs centered around the pop genre, as lo-fi is not nearly as popular. When you try to combine both genres the music sounds as if the lyrics are off beat. Overall, I like the album but it definitely has room for improvement.