Wilby Releases New Single 'Anti Lullaby' From CENTER OF AFFECTION Deluxe

Wilby, the Brooklyn-based indie-rock project of songwriter and artist Maria Crawford, has released a brand new track, 'Anti Lullaby,' which comes lifted from the deluxe edition of her debut album, Center of Affection - out this Friday via Hit The North Records. The expanded version features four new tracks and marks the first anniversary of the album.

Speaking about the wistful and distinctly-crushing new single, Crawford says: 'I wrote 'Anti Lullaby' when I was writing the rest of the record. It seemed obvious as a bonus track for the deluxe, as it thematically talks about childhood, more so from the perspective of an adult (me). It talks about how and when we choose to protect kids, and what from.'

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.

'When I had previously tried to write records with a concept or just a clear prompt, I would end up obfuscating my ideas,' she explains. 'It wasn't until I debunked that for myself that I was able to break through and write the songs I wanted to.' The songs flowed very naturally from the routine sparked by her morning pages, where she would jot down ideas uninhibited by direction, feasibility, or vulnerability. 'Songs would just flow from that practice, which was very inspiring.'

Despite the creative wellspring from which these songs emerged, there's a precision and clarity to Wilby's songwriting that is fully-formed on Center of Affection. She's been one of Nashville's most exciting indie artists since graduating from the city's Belmont College, but on her debut LP, that promise is fulfilled; there's an intoxicating splendor to this album, rich and filling both lyrically and sonically.

On projects like 2021's EP Translucent Beauty and 2023's EP happiest woman, desires and wants are amplified, projected onto center stage, and ruminated over. On Center of Affection, these urges are still circling, but Crawford is more interested in why they emerged than satisfying them.

'While writing this record, I was trying to get in touch with myself,' she explains. 'I realized I was pretty disconnected from my childhood as well as my current and present self. I had to understand the 'why' that led me to be so disconnected and then understand and have compassion for myself.'

Tracklist

1. Center of Affection

2. Pleaser

3. Spin

4. 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: Isaac Namias