Matt Maltese’s incredible debut album Bad Contestant is a little glimpse into his world of irony, sadness and romance – which may seem like a strange combination of themes, but Maltese’s lyrics are so witty and clever that it makes sense.
Matt Maltese is 22 years old, but writes like he has had a lifetime’s worth of heartbreak and has seen the world from multiple points of view. He has been compared to the likes of Father John Misty in the way that his lyrics are mostly witty and ironic. While a lot of the songs seem sad, he never really focuses too heavily on sadness and always finds a way to slip a bit of a joke in there which I love. So many popular songs nowadays are really basic and stick to one theme and most of the time don’t try to discuss controversial topics. His song ‘As The World Caves In’ sounds like a classic, beautiful, heart-breaking ballad but it is in fact Maltese wondering about what it would be like if Theresa May and Donald Trump spent the night together after starting a nuclear war (try not to picture it, for your own good).
My favourite song on the album might be ‘Like A Fish’ – it’s a song about self-loathing and comparing yourself to others in a negative way. It definitely should not be as catchy as it is considering it’s a confession of self-hate… but I love it. His writing on this album is also really poetic and almost reminds me a bit of punk-poet John Cooper Clarke’s writing in the way that he uses bleak everyday things and makes them romantic.
It is hard to believe that this is Matt’s debut album, each song is so well thought out and almost annoyingly clever. I genuinely love every song on the album which is very rare, there aren’t any ‘filler’ songs & there aren’t any that I’d want to skip either! The album leaves you wanting to know even more about Maltese’s view on politics, romance and the world in general and I hope it’s not too long until we get to hear more!
Follow Matt
Insta – https://www.instagram.com/matthewmaltese/
Spotify – https://open.spotify.com/album/6TQBSDaY7mVEjwK3QxQUfA?si=CDA5OveeQbeyRSsNINuI-g
By Thalia Traynor