Madi Diaz, the Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter, has announced the release of her latest album, “Fatal Optimist”, on 10th October 2025 via ANTI- Records. Díaz has been around for a lot longer than many people realise, having put out her first album, “Skin And Bone”, in 2007. Despite attracting quite a buzz and placing songs in films and TV shows, there was a seven-year break between her 2014 record and 2021’s “History Of A Feeling”, which was also her first for the ANTI- label. The record received a lot of praise, well-deserved, from critics.
In 2023, she played guitar in Harry Styles’ band on his European tour, as well as acting as support. Later that year, she played a fine show at London’s Bush Hall, where the audience seemed split between the Styles crowd and the somewhat older folk-americana audience. The following year, Diaz released her second album for ANTI-, “Weird Faith” As well as being very well received and featuring on many end-of-year best-of lists, it was nominated for two Grammys.
“Fatal Optimist” may be the final chapter in her heartache trilogy, and the rawest entry. After ending a relationship with someone she once envisioned marrying, Diaz turned away from everyone and everything she knew and took herself to an island. “I put myself on an island,” Diaz wrote in her journal. “I was already describing myself as an emotional island swimming in so much of an ocean of feelings. It was the perfect physical manifestation, alone with all of my disappointment.” Rage, embarrassment and romantic grief shifted into inner wholeness, and the pieces of “Fatal Optimist” started falling into place. “I didn’t know that I hadn’t chosen myself yet,” she says. “The only person I’m never gonna leave is myself.”
“This was the first time in my career that I stayed in this heavy place with the songs after leaving the studio rather than trying to escape it,” she says. In essence, “Fatal Optimist” comes down to Diaz alone in a room with her acoustic guitar. The pre-save/pre-order link can be found here.
The first single, ‘Feel Something’, comes with a video in which Allister Ann captures the romantic spell being fully broken, while Diaz reveals the futility of reaching for emotional connection after it’s already been lost. It presents the oscillating emotions of post-break-up limbo with energetic acoustic strumming, languid electric guitar, and a final declaration, “Fuck my life, goddamnit I might!”
Reflecting on the track, Diaz says, “‘Feel Something’ is about the deep yearning and desire to connect. It’s the moment when you’re trying to call in the love that was lost. It’s the first single off the album because it has the sense of urgency and panic that I felt at that first moment I noticed I was alone in my relationship.”
