Matt Maltese - Driving Just To Drive

Since first emerging with 2018’s ‘Bad Contestant’, Matt Maltese has been an old head on young shoulders, capable of summing up life’s everyday struggles with wit and wisdom in equal measure. On ‘Driving Just to Drive’ - the prolific musician’s fourth in five years - this core appeal remains, however there’s a warm domesticity to many of these tracks that’s smaller and softer than the apocalyptic balladry that first made his name; these are vignettes plucked from a Richard Curtis movie - romantic and relatable, with all the humorous foibles left in. Matt’s crucial talent is in his knack for spotting new perspectives amongst universally-documented subjects, thus sweeping album opener ‘Mother’ becomes a break-up song told through the eyes of a parent who’s also lost an in-law, and the sepia-tinged ‘Museum’ details a life via the artefacts that would make up their own personal retrospective. Among the mid-tempo safe space of the record, little revolutions stand out; Biig Piig’s intimate delivery turns ‘Coward’ into a tender duet, while ‘Widows’ cuts through the niceties with an untempered lust (“I put myself inside of you / And use my hands when you tell me to / Like there’s no fucking tomorrow”). Sure, it’s not GG Allin smearing shit on himself, but it’s Matt keeping the listener on their toes, nonetheless.