January 31, 2025
Maya Delilah has announced the release of The Long Way Round, her stunning full-length debut album out March 28 via Blue Note/Capitol. The London-based singer, songwriter, and guitarist has also been named a 2025 Spotify “Artist To Watch,” another sure sign of her rising star after she was named to the Fender Next “Class of 2024.” Her debut album makes good on that promise by bringing all the elements of her art together — the intimacy, the ability, the inspiration, the depth, the lightness — into one striking work.
While the 12 songs on The Long Way Round are steeped in soul-pop, they also contain rich strains of country and blues, hints of gospel and choral music, and one full serving of unvarnished funk with the flirty new single “Squeeze” out today. “This album is a combination of so many parts of me,” says Maya. “I get so influenced by different genres, people, places, and experiences that it’s always felt hard for me to fit my music into a consistent sound or mood. It took me a long time (hence The Long Way Round) to realize that it’s a beautiful thing to have a body of work that explores so many different influences.”
Making the album was also a literal journey, from a barn-based studio in Devon, England, to a home studio in Los Angeles, and back to various rooms across London. All with a cast of friends new and old, including producers Peter Miles, Josh Grant, Doug Schadt, Seth Tackaberry, and Aquilo’s Ben Fletcher and Tom Higham, as well as collaborators including Samm Henshaw, Grace Lightman, members of FIZZ, organist Cory Henry, and drummer Aaron Sterling (John Mayer, Taylor Swift).
Maya’s muse isn’t the only thing tying The Long Way Round together. Opener “Begin Again” introduces a powerful theme. As she looks back at her first car, her first kiss, her first home, she returns to the gentle hook: “Another day, another end / Oh, we begin again.” The idea of cycles frames the set as the album goes on. Depending on your interpretation, The Long Way Round could be about regaining trust in love or losing it entirely. Shuffled, these songs could trace the arc of one relationship from inception to end, or it could be the bridge between a failed romance and a thrilling new one, or it’s a dozen separate vignettes. With these songs — from soothing, psychedelic send-off “Look at the State of Me Now” to Western-inflected codependence tribute “Necklace” to the ‘70s soul music inspired “Actress” — Maya proves herself a master of not just an evocative guitar solo, but of capturing life’s biggest contradiction: why everything matters all the time and also why it’s not that deep.
“My biggest hope is that the album feels nostalgic to someone I’ve never met before,” says Maya. It’s an interesting thought given how uniquely “Maya” this set is, but that’s exactly what makes it work as intended. The warm glow, the wry smile, a sense of loss, and a yearning for renewal — we’re right there with her as she looks back, and ahead, at The Long Way Round.
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A 24-year-old singer, songwriter and guitarist from North London, Maya Delilah attended the prestigious BRIT School whose alumni include Adele, Amy Winehouse, and FKA twigs, among many others. In 2020, lockdown put a pause on the background session work Maya had begun to do within her community of music-making friends, so she turned to livestreams and TikTok where she built up a devoted following with unadorned clips where she would sit cross-legged on the floor, a bed, or a table, her fingernails dancing over the strings, making the guitar sing out whole moods. Over the course of two self-released EPs (2020’s Oh Boy, 2021’s It’s Not Me, It’s You), she amassed more than 50 million streams of fan favorites like “Breakup Season” and “Tangerine Dream” that greeted heartache with humor. Maya began releasing music on Blue Note/Capitol in 2022, reinterpreting Cassandra Wilson’s cover of Neil Young’s “Harvest Moon” for Blue Note Re:imagined II, and following with a string of singles including “Silver Lining” and “Pretty Face.” Maya was named to the Fender Next “Class of 2024” — a huge co-sign from the guitar brand she’s been playing since age 8 — and has also been named a 2025 Spotify “Artist To Watch.”
