Madi Diaz – Fatal Optimist (UN-unplugged)

Madi Diaz announces Fatal Optimist (UN-unplugged), a deluxe release out September 4th via ANTI-, and releases the lead single, “This is How a Woman Leaves (UN-unplugged).”

Last year, Diaz released the “raw, unguarded, and deeply human” (Hit Parader) Fatal Optimist, leading to widespread acclaim and packed shows across the country. The album landed on several publications’ “Best of 2025” lists, including Los Angeles Times and NPR Music, the latter raving, “Madi Diaz continued to move and amaze with her plain-spoken poetry and gift for melody.”

Fatal Optimist (UN-plugged) is a stripped-back collection and further highlights Diaz’s ability to cut to the emotional core of her own experiences with startling precision. The album includes four additional “UN-unplugged” tracks with features from Lucy Dacus and August Ponthier. Of Fatal Optimist (UN-plugged), Diaz says: “These songs have two sides now. One being the insular raw, knee jerk world of Fatal Optimist. In UN-unplugged land, I sat with some of my favorite players to date, and we fumbled through these songs together. Not so solitary, more like lonely together – letting a world build, and doing it in full color. Often times when I write a song, I’m still processing whatever it is I’m going through. With Fatal Optimist, my intent was to stay in those early stages of writing and capture that intense, insulated energy of active processing. With the UN-unplugged versions, I feel a bit braver, now standing on two feet, ready to say it all quite a bit louder.”

Fatal Optimist (UN-unplugged) Tracklist:

1. Hope Less

2. Ambivalence

3. Feel Something

4. Good Liar

5. Lone Wolf

6. Heavy Metal

7. If Time Does What It’s Supposed To

8. Flirting

9. Why’d You Have To Bring Me Flowers

10. Time Difference

11. Fatal Optimist

12. This is How a Woman Leaves (UN-unplugged)

13. Hope Less (UN-unplugged)

14. Why’d You Have To Bring Me Flowers (feat. August Ponthier) (UN-unplugged)

15. Heavy Metal (feat. Lucy Dacus) (UN-unplugged)

“This is How a Woman Leaves (UN-unplugged)” was originally written by Diaz for Maren Morris, who recorded and released it. On the track, Diaz grounds gut-punching lyrics in the difficult reality of setting boundaries and walking away: “This is how a woman leaves // Even though it’s killing me // I’ll make it look so easy // That even I believe me.”

Reflecting on the song, Diaz says: “I was vacuuming my ex’s house after I had finally gotten the last of my boxes out . . .because I thought it would be nice to come home to an empty house if it was clean? My friend called to check in and make sure I wasn’t lingering in a house she knew meant so much to me, even still. I confessed to the vacuuming, feeling totally out of my mind. And she told me it was okay that I was vacuuming my ex’s house. Sitting there. Feeling all of it. Angry and doing the dishes in a final screw you? Hurt and folding his laundry? Taking the coffee maker (after first contemplating stealing the dog)? Leaving some things worse, but most things better than I found them? ‘That’s how a woman leaves’ was what she said. And I went home and it echoed in my mind for months, until this song finally poured out of me one day with Sarah Buxton and Maren Morris. I will always remember sitting in my living room finishing this song and hearing Maren sing it for the first time.”

This summer, Diaz will embark on a run of shows throughout the East Coast, including festival appearances at Newport Folk Festival and Prescott Park Arts Festival.

Madi Diaz Tour Dates:
Tue. July 21 – Manchester, VT @ Billsville House Concerts
Thu. July 23 – Portland, ME @ One Longfellow Square
Sat. July 25 – Newport, RI @ Newport Folk Festival
Wed. Aug. 19 – Portsmouth, NH @ Prescott Park Arts Festival

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