WILBY Shares New Single "Real Truth," Announces CENTER OF AFFECTION Deluxe

The deluxe reissue adds a collaboration with Izzy Heltai and an acoustic reworking of "Protection."

By: Rachel Stone Aug. 19, 2026

Wilby, the Brooklyn-based indie-rock project of songwriter and artist Maria Crawford, has released a new single and video 'Real Truth.'

The new single comes alongside news of the deluxe edition of Wilby's debut album 'Center of Affection'. The deluxe edition, which features four new tracks, is out via Hit The North Records on October 9 marking the 1st anniversary of the album. This new version features Massachusetts-based artist, Izzy Heltai on 'Body' alongside two new tracks and an acoustic re-working of the heartbreaking single, 'Protection'.

Speaking about 'Real Truth' Maria Crawford says: 'I wrote Real Truth on the heels of recording the album, and I was surprised by how cracked open I had become. Releasing this one as a bonus track seemed fitting in a lot of ways: sonically, it captured a lot the folk-leaning style of the album, while thematically it showed where I am headed. I see “Real Truth” as the other side of the coin to “Hard to Be Loved”. It is simple and sweet, which feels brave for me, and I think it serves as a little fruit dessert to the album.'

Wilby's 'Center of Affection' - supported at KEXP, FLOOD Magazine and Paste Magazine - began as a creative practice, a result of morning pages that unfurled like stream of consciousness diary entries. During previous efforts, when the artist born Maria Crawford would write to prompts, enter the nebulous “album mode,” or search for a theme to spur her creative practice, everything felt forced. It was only in letting go, in a decision to let her strongest ideals bubble from the roots of her subconscious to the top of her mind, that she was able to write her bravest, most beautiful, and strongest effort to date.

Tracklist

1. Center of Affection

2. Pleaser

3. Spin

5. I Don't

5. Protection

6. Experiments

7. Peripheral Vision

8. Care

9. Body

10. I Think You're Beautiful When You're Losing Your Mind

11. Too Late To Save

12. Hard To Be Loved

13. Real Truth

14. Anti Lullaby

15. Body (ft. Izzy Heltai)

16. Protection (Acoustic)

Photo Credit: Cait Frances