I remember sitting in my dorm room last year listening to his song "Like a Fish." I was doing homework, or at least that was what I was supposed to be doing, and so I expected the song to simply fade into the background as I worked. My focus was steadfast until I heard the first lines of the song, "You said you use chocolate when you and him take off all your clothes. Why the f*ck you'd tell me that? Can't drink that image out of my head." From those lines forward, I tuned into the song.
It was the line, "I wish that I could fill his shoes but I'm only a seven" that made me laugh out loud. I remember being surprised at my own reaction. I think it takes a great deal of musical talent to make people cry, dance, and laugh all at once. Matt Maltese has that talent.
Maltese was born in England and released his first EP at age 19. While Maltese's music includes a variety of topics like apocalypses, pollution, and the Covid-19 pandemic, all his work is written through the lens of someone who is in love or recovering from lost love. Through all the heartbreak and turmoil, Maltese manages to find a way to laugh at himself and make light of his difficult situations. In his song "Rom-Com Gone Wrong," for instance, Maltese writes, "Long baths, podcasts, I'm crying when I'm smashed. Haha, welcome to grieving." Not only does Maltese give us a vivid look into his personal grieving process, but he adds in a sarcastic, "haha," to balance out the self-deprecatory sentiments. Additionally, these lines are sung with a certain bounce, allowing the listener to appreciate the heaviness of the lyrics without being completely torn down by them.
Another one of my favorites is his song "Sweet 16." In this piece, Maltese questions the normalcy of thinking about a high school relationship years after its demise, and tries to determine whether he really misses his high school sweetheart or if he just craves a time in his life where he felt fulfilled. Maltese explains in this song how he received an automated "out-of-office reply" when he attempted to reach out to his old high school girlfriend. This rejection lead him to write, "I can always passively-aggressively put you in a song." It's Maltese's snarkiness and evocative imagery that make his music so addictive and unpackable.
Over the summer Maltese's song "As the World Caves In" blew up on the app Tik-Tok. The song would play over videos depicting life in quarantine and thus caused the song to become an anthem for the world's new, almost apocalyptic-like normal. While many of his songs have ironic, bitter undertones, Maltese also has ballads that explore the beauty in intimate moments. This is evident in his songs "When You Wash Your Hair," "little person," and "Strange Time." (please listen to them)
One of my favorite things about Maltese's writing is his ability to make very specific, personal moments relatable to his vast audience. When I listen to his music it feels like I'm listening to scenes pulled from both his and my life. Even though I first listened to his song "Less and Less" last winter, it still has the ability to make me cry. I found solace in the lyrics of this song during a time when I was heartbroken and struggling to make someone who was once very important to me fade into my past. My ability to relate to someone's heartbreak experience so strongly both comforted and inspired me.
Maltese's personal stories told through song make him a classic example of an artist who exhibits collecting. Although Maltese is definitely an artist on the rise, for now he is a middle-c creative. I believe he has the potential to one day become big-c.
Resources:
https://www.npr.org/2018/06/06/617284047/matt-maltese-writes-love-songs-for-the-end-of-the-world
https://www.interviewmagazine.com/music/discovery-matt-maltese
https://diymag.com/2018/06/07/matt-maltese-bad-contestant-interview-june-2018
https://www.nme.com/blogs/nme-blogs/matt-maltese-bad-contestant-interview-2325132
I feel like I'm the only person of our generation who's not on TikTok, so I've never heard of Matt Maltese. After reading this, though, I think I'll have to go check him out. I love artists who use personal experience to write their songs because it makes them so relatable and that much more enjoyable. There's really nothing like listening to a song when its lyrics really strike a chord with you (no pun intended). You feel seen and understood.
ReplyDeleteI think the ability to do this is one of the marks of a great musician. I understand why Maltese's music, dealing with his sad experiences in a sarcastic or funny way, is appealing to many (especially the TikTok generation). I agree that he's a middle-c creative, and that in no way means he isn't great. And who knows, maybe he'll become big-c one day!
It truly amazes me how integral Matt Maltese's music has become to my experiences and my personal growth in the past 8 months (and I have you to thank for this). It feels as though every Matt Maltese song takes me back to a specific memory during the second semester of freshman year, discovering my favorite people in the world and reeling through the hardships of the pandemic. Like you had mentioned, Maltese's lyrics create such vivid, applicable imagery. Not only can I imagine his emotional experiences that he details in his songs, but I can apply those anecdotes to my own life, allowing myself to recall and come to terms with uncomfortable memories. Maltese describes niche but oddly relatable emotions so well, it is undoubtedly the mark of a masterful songwriter. I don't ever think I'll get tired of his music and I'm eager to see what realms of the human experience he will write about next.
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