Having moved from Berlin back to Ireland at the beginning of the pandemic, Maria Kelly spent quarantine crafting her of warm and gentle alt-folk sound – a musical style she employs on Martha, which was released earlier this week.

The track focuses on the emotional upheaval of the past year and opens with an oddly comforting voice from Kelly’s close friend Martha, who lends her name to the track – proclaiming that “it might be the end of the world, but like, it’s fine”.

“I wrote the song just after I returned from Berlin and was taking stock of just how much had changed in my life throughout my early 20s,” says Maria of the new single.

“Here I was, having just had this really formative experience, disillusioned and directionless again. Not only that, but I was no longer the version of myself that had left Ireland – and not quite who I wanted to be yet either – just stuck in this floaty, in-between with a version of myself that I wasn’t quite used to yet.”

Martha is now available for streaming.