Upstate New York-based singer-songwriter Maxine Kembo shares new single “Good Excuse”
At just 18 years old, the Upstate New York-based singer-songwriter, Maxine Kembo, is quickly becoming a promising new voice in indie pop. She began sharing snippets of her music on TikTok in 2021, drawing attention for her journalistic lyrics and catchy melodies. By the following year, those early clips turned into official releases on Spotify, marking the start of a steadily growing catalogue and most recently, giving us her latest album Star.
Influenced by artists like Stevie Nicks, Clairo and Sabrina Carpenter, Maxine’s sound sits between bedroom-pop intimacy and indie pop charm. Her music is a joy to listen to, shaped by her time in music spaces prioritising presence, storytelling and performance (from theatre productions to jazz sets and live gigs) she places emotional movement and melodic expression above studio polish. It makes her music feel more intimate, like a journey of feeling, bringing us back to this idea of being inside her journal, not only through her lyrics but also her technical production.
Maxine Kembo’s latest album, Star, explores love in all its messy stages: infatuation, disappointment, and the slow unravelling that follows. One of the album’s standout moments, “Good Excuse”, plays like a modern heartbreak anthem.
Instrumentally, “Good Excuse” leans into timeless pop structure. The track favours simplicity, with looping, musical-theatre-esque piano lines that add texture, anchored by a familiar pop drum beat. It’s the kind of chorus that is infectious, repeating in your head long after the song ends and tailor-made for anyone needing to vent about a heart break.
At its core, the song “Good Excuse” is about chasing someone who was never worth the effort in the first place. It captures that moment of clarity when romantic hope gives way to self-respect: the realisation that no amount of chasing will make the wrong person right. There’s a definite ‘fuck you’ sense, but in a way that’s not only bitter, it’s also an emotional release. Despite the emotional subject matter, the song never feels heavy-handed. It turns romantic disappointment into a catchy pop song, a heartbreak wrapped in glossy hooks.
Maxine summed up the emotional heart of the album herself on Instagram, writing:
“This is for the girls who don’t feel seen so they chase a spotlight, although they might trip and fall along the way.” — Maxine Kembo.
In the track “Good Excuse” that sense of ‘chasing a spotlight’ plays out emotionally: the pursuit of someone who never truly saw her, and the clarity that follows when the chase finally stops. Rather than giving up on the spotlight, the song reframes it, turning a moment of emotional invisibility into self-recognition. It’s a fitting line for the song, album and her career so far, a young artist finding her voice through trial and error, learning her worth in the aftermath of disappointment.
Stream “Good Excuse” below:
