In taking a step back from her signature synth-laden, sparkling pop music, Swedish singer and songwriter Maja Francis rediscovered her roots—and her piano—while writing songs for her full-length debut album A Pink Soft Mess. Released worldwide last month, A Pink Soft Mess finds the daughter of a record store owner embracing her melancholy and emotional country-pop sound which matches brilliantly with the album’s shimmering pink design themes—fitting for an artist often described as “Emo Dolly Parton.” Recorded with and produced by Johannes Runemark and David Wikberg together with Maja Francis, A Pink Soft Mess can be streamed or purchased right now at this link. (Maja Francis, 2021)

A Pink Soft Mess opens with the previously released single, “Anxious Angel,” which fans may have heard on Netflix’s acclaimed series Love & Anarchy. “This song is to all my fellow anxious angels,” says Francis. “To make us feel less lonely.” “Tiny Tornados” comes next; the first song Francis wrote on her way back to loving music again. “I opened up to fall in love with writing songs and singing them again,” she recalls of the writing of “Tiny Tornados.” “It’s also kind of a tribute to my ADHD, and how it feels to live with the constant ups and downs.” Also included is a stellar cover of Kate Bush’s “This Woman’s Work,” a song which has always made Francis “feel physical sensations.” “I love when music does that to you. Like…shakes you around like a snow globe,” she says. “I think Kate wrote this song for a movie about birth from a man’s perspective. But for me it’s about loss. Losing someone or yourself—and how painful that is.”

Album single “PMS Party” is the low-key women’s anthem of the year. “I’m having a PMS party and nobody’s invited / I wanna be lonely and do whatever I want.” “I wrote ‘PMS Party’ on a moody PMS day, it’s the fastest song I’ve ever written,” recalls Francis. “I didn’t know if the boys in the studio would get it but I took it with me the next day, they loved it and after a while I found them in a room singing ‘pms party’ backing vocals.” The final single from A Pink Soft Mess, “Mama,” is an unreleased collaboration with Johanna and Klara Söderberg—better known as First Aid Kit. A tribute to Francis’s mother, “Mama” is about feeling a mom’s love and learning how to reciprocate it. “Now that I’m all grown up, I understand so much more about her struggles and her pain, and I also see so much of myself in her,” says Francis about her “mama.” Fans should also stay tuned for an upcoming music video for “Mama.”

When it is all said and done, A Pink Soft Mess is distinctive, emotional, personal, the result of a variety of strong sources of inspiration, experiences, and collaborations. With this new material, Francis has abandoned the world where music creation is captivated by demands and expectations and where commercial success becomes the only significant point of assessment. Now, when Francis returns with her new music, it comes straight from the heart.

A Pink Soft Mess Track list:
1. Anxious Angel
2. Tiny Tornados
3. PMS Party
4. Mama (ft. First Aid Kit)
5. Lava Love
6. This Woman’s Work
7. Lucky
8. Emo Butterfly
9. How Are We Doing