Madi Diaz releases Fatal Optimist (UN-unplugged), a deluxe release out today via ANTI-, featuring the previously unreleased ‘Why’d You Have To Bring Me Flowers (feat. August Ponthier) (UN-unplugged).’ This rework finds Diaz and Ponthier transforming ‘Why’d You Have To Bring Me Flowers,’ a “perfect convergence of craftsmanship and fearless vulnerability” (Stereogum), into a track that Diaz says is “almost flirty.”
Of the song and Ponthier, Diaz comments: “Oh god. August Ponthier – how do I even use words to describe my love for this human?! My friend. I first met them while writing for their project in early 2025, and was immediately struck by their brilliant mind and sickening singing abilities. It’s truly wild stuff. It’s been a total boon to have them on a song with me and I hope we write songs til we get so very old.”
Ponthier adds, “Madi Diaz is the type of writer whose reputation proceeds her in every room that cares deeply about the craft of songwriting. Before I met her, I was nervous because I had so many big ideas and hopes about who she is— and she exceeded every single one. We became immediate friends and she reignited my love of writing in an instant. When she asked me to be on Flowers, I didn’t just approach it like one of my heroes had asked me, I approached it like one of my closest friends trusted me with a piece of her emotional world. When she performed this song at our writers’ round at the Bluebird, I was in awe of her so deeply that I forgot I was playing too! I hope when people hear this recording, they know it wasn’t born out of a conversation about metrics and money, but a shared love of music and friendship.”
Listen to ‘Why’d You Have To Bring Me Flowers (feat. August Ponthier) (UN-unplugged)’
This is the second collaboration on the Fatal Optimist deluxe edition following ‘Heavy Metal (feat. Lucy Dacus) (UN-unplugged)’ in which the pair’s “voices…produce some sort of magic” (Hearing Things). Watch Diaz and Dacus perform the song together below at the Newport Folk Festival.
Watch Madi Diaz & Lucy Dacus Perform ‘Heavy Metal (UN-unplugged)’ at Newport Folk Festival
Including four additional “UN-unplugged” songs, Fatal Optimist (UN-plugged) is a collection further highlighting Diaz’s ability to cut to the emotional core of her own experiences with startling precision. Alongside the August Ponthier collaboration, ‘Hope Less (UN-unplugged)’ is also now available to hear for the first time. Diaz comments, “The band really took this song and harnessed all of the absolute desperation and frustration that already existed, and aimed it at something that almost feels like a song I wish I had written on a secret track of a missing Fleetwood Mac album.”
Diaz reflects, “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. Oftentimes 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.”
Watch the Visualizer for “This is How a Woman Leaves (UN-unplugged)”
Praise for Madi Diaz
“[Fatal Optimist is] deeply sparse and stripped-down, driven primarily by Diaz’s strong yet uncannily tender voice and acoustic guitar.”– The New York Times
“Fatal Optimist scales back [Diaz’s] sound, but not her devastating emotional honesty.” – Rolling Stone
“It’s cathartic to hear Diaz turn over the sort of thinking we’d otherwise avoid…One can only hope that next time we feel just as brave, our thoughts end up being just as quotable.”– The Bitter Southerner
“Like [Joni] Mitchell, Diaz achieves a clarity of thought in her songs that only intensifies the heartache.” – Los Angeles Times
Watch Madi Diaz’s NPR Tiny Desk Concert
Madia Diaz
Fatal Optimist (UN-unplugged)
Pre-Order Fatal Optimist (UN-unplugged)
Tracklist:
- Hope Less
- Ambivalence
- Feel Something
- Good Liar
- Lone Wolf
- Heavy Metal
- If Time Does What It’s Supposed To
- Flirting
- Why’d You Have To Bring Me Flowers
- Time Difference
- Fatal Optimist
- This is How a Woman Leaves (UN-unplugged)
- Hope Less (UN-unplugged)
- Why’d You Have To Bring Me Flowers (feat. August Ponthier) (UN-unplugged)
- Heavy Metal (feat. Lucy Dacus) (UN-unplugged)
Madi Diaz Online:
