Maple Glider - I Get Into Trouble (LP) - Neon Pink Vinyl

Maple Glider’s second album, I Get Into Trouble, finds Tori Zietsch sharpening everything that made her debut so affecting, then stepping into tougher terrain with a quiet kind of bravery. She keeps the arrangements spare and close, but the writing moves with a new purpose. These songs reckon with belief, desire and shame, and there is a steadiness in how she walks through it all, hand on heart, voice just inches from your ear.

Working again with producer Tom Iansek, she sticks to a palette that suits her so well. Fingerpicked acoustic guitar, a soft thrum of bass, piano lines that hover, percussion that never fusses. Iansek has a knack for making rooms feel bigger without crowding them, and he uses that here, letting Zietsch’s voice carry the weight. The mix is intimate, the kind that makes you lower your own voice as you listen, as if you might spook the songs if you speak too loudly.

The record’s spine is its clear-eyed writing on religion and bodily autonomy. Dinah is a standout, named for the figure from the Book of Genesis. Zietsch uses that story as a mirror, folding in her memories of a religious upbringing and the way purity culture can creep into the corners of everyday life. She never lapses into sermon, though. Her tone is reflective, even tender, and it makes the critique land harder. Don’t Kiss Me pushes in a different direction, all tension and line-in-the-sand resolve. The restraint in the production leaves room for her phrasing to do the heavy lifting, and she makes every pause count.

There is a lived-in quality to the way she writes about love and the body. Lines arrive with the plainness of a diary entry, but she knows exactly when to tilt an image so it catches the light. A late song will wander along in a hush and then, almost casually, land on a phrase that flips your stomach. That calm surface hides a lot of movement. You hear it in how the melodies climb, or how a small harmony enters on a chorus and changes the temperature of the room.

If you spent time with To Enjoy Is The Only Thing, you will hear the same clarity of vision here, only tighter. The guitars feel closer, the vocals more anchored, the spaces between notes more deliberate. Iansek threads in small details that reward repeat listens, a sighing synth line, a brushed cymbal that fades like breath on a cold window. It never tips into prettiness for its own sake. Every choice serves the song.

The album also captures a specifically Australian quiet that I love, that feeling of late afternoon light and long shadows on a suburban street. Zietsch’s Melbourne roots show up not through name checks, but in tone, in the way she gives small moments room to matter. It is an album that invites you to lean in, to sit with discomfort and with relief, and to remember how good it feels when a voice tells the truth at a conversational volume.

On vinyl, these songs bloom. The low end gets a touch warmer, the hush around her vocal becomes a soft cushion, and those small production nudges feel even more tactile. If you are crate-digging and spot I Get Into Trouble vinyl, do not hesitate. It will sit beautifully next to other Maple Glider albums on vinyl and the quieter side of your collection. For those who like to buy Maple Glider records online, this one is an easy add to cart. If you are browsing a Melbourne record store or hunting through vinyl records Australia wide, keep an eye out for Maple Glider vinyl, because this album rewards a full side uninterrupted, needle down, phone facedown.

What lingers after the last track is not just the subject matter, heavy as it sometimes is, but the way Zietsch sounds completely present inside it. There is no theatrical flourish, no borrowed poses, just a songwriter taking careful stock of what shaped her and what she wants to leave behind. I Get Into Trouble is brave in a quiet way, beautifully built, and generous with its truths. It makes you want to thank the room for being so still.