Matilda Mann has always been a little superstitious. “There are too many coincidences in the world not to be,” the acclaimed singer-songwriter smiles, speaking from her family home in West London. “I like to think that there are some decisions in life that are already made for you, and you just have to go along with them.”

This belief forms the foundation of Mann’s aptly-titled second album, Kismet. Arriving little more than 18 months on from its powerful predecessor, Roxwell, the stunning, 11-song set was written from a place of peace and stability, firmly putting to bed the notion that meaningful art must always originate from pain. An unabashed celebration of love in its many forms, it sees the BRIT School graduate pairing her innate emotional candour with doe-eyed soul-pop and tender folk, and offering listeners some much-needed escapism.

For Mann, music has long been a vital avenue for expression. As an only child, she was drawn to lyric-writing long before she fully understood songwriting as a craft, using it as an outlet for capturing observations and communicating her internal life. She went on to pursue flute, violin, piano, drum and guitar, but it was the latter that stuck, especially when she abandoned formal tuition altogether to pore over the work of her enduring hero Laura Marling.

A music scholarship student at high school, Mann then won a place at BRIT School for sixth form, as part of the same cohort as Cat Burns and Eloise. In hindsight, she credits BRIT with expanding her horizons in unexpected ways. “The people that you meet [at BRIT] are all very creative and very much themselves and – as someone who still had terrible stage fright at that point – it was very refreshing. I’d always accepted that I'd be a top liner and write for other people, but suddenly being an artist felt viable.”

That hunch was vindicated post-college when Mann was named runner-up in Glastonbury Festival’s prestigious Emerging Talent Competition, and selected to open for Arlo Parks, Beabadoobee and The Staves on the strength of her debut EP, 2020’s If That Makes Sense. It was followed by three more EPs – Because I Wanted You To Know (2020), Sonder (2021), You Look Like You Can't Swim (2023) – before her debut full-length, Roxwell, landed in February 2025.

Written with collaborators including Jonah Summerfield (Holly Humberstone, Rachel Chinouriri), Nate Campany (Chappell Roan, Carly Rae Jepsen), Noah Levine (Noah Kahan) and Joel Pott (George Ezra), the record captured a period of intense personal transition, including relationships ending, homes changing and a broader sense of emotional uncertainty. Looking

back, Mann describes the album as “a wonderful mess, ” accurately reflecting the periods of growth and confusion that characterised her early 20s. Kismet represents a marked shift in tone and perspective.

Capturing the weightless bliss of being newly in love, these are timeless songs that satisfy and soothe, all breezy, major key melodies, lush arrangements and swooning vocal harmonies. The album came together remarkably painlessly, recorded in a matter of months at Summerfield’s North London studio. Citing the influence of her recent live experiences performing a sell-out headline show at London’s KOKO, and opening for Tom Odell, Laufey, Role Model and Wallows, Mann set about expanding her sound, resulting in what she terms as “an all or nothing kind of album.”

‘After The Love’ channels the spirit of Dusty In Memphis, caressing the listener with its sun-dappled strings and tambourine, while the sensuous shimmy of ‘Make Up’ cocoons Mann’s breathy coo in warm Hammond organ and muted horns. On the moodboard were a host of 70s soul and soft-rock artists, including Al Green, Bill Withers, Carole King and The Carpenters, as well as contemporary artists like Natalie Bergman and The Marías. The result is an album imbued with a dreamy sense of nostalgia, without ever feeling derivative.

Lyrically, Al Green’s influence looms large. “I love how vulnerable and direct he is,” Mann explains. “He’ll simply sing, ‘I love you,’ and he’ll make it sound so poetic and beautiful.” Taking his lead, she lays her heart on the line throughout, confessing on ‘Forever And A Day’, “Sometimes it terrifies me to think of a world where you’re not beside me.” ‘Chain Reaction’ begins with the line, “Heaven is a concept I’m a little closer to believing in since you walked right in,” and concludes with the refrain, “One for the ages / A love they’ll never forget / It was bound to happen / Automatic since the day we met.”

Kismet is unapologetically romantic – finding Mann entreating her lover to linger forever on ‘Haunt Me’ and dreaming up new terms to describe her adoration over wispy slide guitar on ‘Inventing’– but it’s about more than just romance. ‘Bittersweet’ explores ideas of distance and memory, reflecting on a formative friendship that faded with time. Meanwhile, for ‘The Fig Tree’ she borrows a metaphor from Sylvia Plath, exploring the idea of being paralysed by choice over Disney esque woodwind (“I worry that I’ll never end up truly satisfied”) before returning to her only certainty in the chorus (“It’s you – you’re all that I need.”)

For Mann, the concept of kismet is less about passivity and more about perspective. It’s about choosing to “lean into” uncertainty and find meaning in it. Though Mann is quick to acknowledge that this approach can feel countercultural – particularly within British sensibilities that often lean toward self-deprecation – she firmly believes there is value in creating space for joy and hope. “I understand the idea of finding escapism in art is innately privileged, but I hope this album can allow listeners to be selfish for a moment. I’d love them to step away from the troubles of the world, have fun and think about their lives positively, without guilt.” Whether one believes it was pre-destined or not, Kismet is the sound of an artist who has grown exponentially in confidence, and who has firmly found her path.