Beth Elsden was given what sounds like an impossible brief — write a song about peace, at a point in time when peace feels like an abstract concept at best. Her instinct to resist the obvious move, to sidestep anything that might tip into “We Are The World” territory, is what makes “Peace Comes With It” the song it is. What she landed on instead is something more personal, more ambivalent, and far more affecting.
Out now on all streaming platforms, the track is Elsden’s second ever release and her most expansive by some distance. Written by Elsden and produced by Dunedin-based collaborator Abby Wolfe, it started life as a simple guitar song — close to folk in its bones — before being shaped into something cinematic and layered. Mixed and mastered by Emily Wheatcroft-Snape, the final result is a striking push and pull between tension and tenderness: marching snares and distorted guitars sitting alongside dreamy strings and muted piano, the sonic equivalent of the song’s emotional argument.
“I was asked to write a song about peace which felt like a lofty task with the state of the world,” Elsden says. “Reluctant to write a cheesy ‘We are the world’ type of song, I started thinking about what peace means to me. I ended up writing an existential love song that settles on the idea that I will take all of the chaotic aspects of the world as long as I can have the beautiful aspects too.”
That bittersweet resolution runs through every part of the track. At its emotional centre is a lyric Elsden names as her favourite: “Run for the hills but my darling look back before you do. In the stillness I can see the good, I see it in you.” It’s the kind of line that earns its place — specific enough to feel real, open enough to let anyone in.
The track also turned out to be the favourite of producer Abby Wolfe, which perhaps explains how confidently it grew from that minimal starting point into something so richly realised. Elsden credits a musical theatre and choral background for her instinct toward harmonies, vocal layering, and dramatic melodic arcs — all of which are present here, drawing natural comparisons to Taylor Swift, Gracie Abrams, Lizzy McAlpine, Maisie Peters, and Gretta Ray.
“Peace Comes With It” is a preview of The Waiting Room EP, Elsden’s forthcoming debut project shaped by five years of quiet development. The EP takes the emotional purgatory of feeling stuck — watching life move forward around you while you’re still in the process of becoming — as its central theme. This single lands as a turning point within that arc, finding clarity and a renewed sense of self amid the mess.
Her debut single “Losing You Slow” announced a compelling new voice. This confirms it.
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