“Hometown Letdown” isn’t sung from Maddie Zahm’s point of view. Instead, the Idaho-born singer-songwriter, who first surfaced on the inaugural season of ABC’s American Idol reboot before building a following of her own, repeats what the people she left behind said about her when she came out as queer and moved to Los Angeles. In Zahm’s telling, leaving town turns her into someone the people back home believe they still have the right to judge. Released on 17 July, it’s the tenth track on Everything All the Time, the Ehren Ebbage-produced album Zahm has called “an ongoing act of curiosity, compassion, and coming home to yourself.”
The writing is sharp about how gossip sounds: casual, a little gleeful, dressed up as concern. “Let’s hope that Jesus isn’t coming soon, just for her sake,” she sings, midway between a joke and a threat, which is exactly how small-town judgment usually sounds. It’s a register familiar to anyone who’s followed her since “Fat Funny Friend” turned TikTok confession into a genuine hit. Zahm has long written about shame, family and self-worth with the same directness. She’s said she can finally laugh at being cast as the girl who left and got a girlfriend. She’s no longer reliving the insult; she’s making fun of it. The guitar opens up as the hook arrives, inviting a roomful of people to sing every word back. Once the words become communal, they lose much of their power.
Zahm plays Manchester’s YES on 14 September and Bush Hall in London the following night.
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