When your recording career starts at such a young age, every new album feels like a first impression. Such is the case for 25-year-old Matt Maltese, who has been releasing boundary-pushing and vulnerable pop ballads since 2015 with each release since acting as a marker of growth for the young man both in musicianship and maturity.
Maltese has nearly perfected the idea of gentle pop, crafting stirring ballads that lean on a certain level of minimalism that allows his lofty ideas of love and life to become intimate and immediate. On this latest release Driving Just To Drive, Maltese returns to this formula with a refreshing take on sonics and style that mixes simple textures with focused songwriting. Maltese has shed himself of the worries and stress of his past in order to focus more on the present, mixing the lessons learned during his younger recording years with the concept that all that we need to know is directly in front of us. Over the course of 11 wide-ranging songs, the artist creates beautifully crafted moments of introspection that lead him to answers he’s been hunting for years now.
Despite the aloofness of the title for Maltese’s fourth outing, the artist sounds more focused than ever. Driving Just To Drive marks the first time in a long time Maltese allowed an outside producer to have input on his art and the difference is astounding. Through collaboration, Maltese is able to step outside of his work and have a fresh perspective on his approach to structure, allowing the album to flow from more lush, fuller production styles like the explosive horns that close out “Museum” to a more intimate soft-rock sound like the sentimental stand-out “Widows”. By welcoming in not only outside viewpoints but also allowing his ideas to fearlessly flourish, we receive Maltese’s best album to date. A collection of songs that attempt to summarize the kaleidoscope of emotions that the artist feels daily, giving us a level of vulnerability that can only be achieved by relaxing the shoulders and letting every thought come out unfiltered.
It’s important to let new releases from artists breathe on their own before comparing them to past works but for Driving Just To Drive, looking back helps contextualize the impressiveness of Maltese’s growth. While his past releases are great in their own right, there are moments that feel forced and act more as a way for Maltese to prove something to himself rather than creating the best music possible. This time around, his approach feels more natural while still being tight and meticulously crafted, giving the album a unique personality and allowing it to stand out from the rest. This is achieved through sparse arrangements and a new-found approach to melody that gives these songs an unwavering yet empathetic viewpoint. Maltese’s songwriting seems to be fixated on the lessons learned from his experiences instead of the experiences themselves, giving his lyrics a sense of urgency that still feels relaxed. The brightness of “Florence” may distract you from the masterful storytelling executed in its lyrics, but it’s the melting of these two worlds that gives the album its one-of-a-kind personality. This contrast is toyed with throughout the LP, allowing for moments of bliss in the midst of self-analyzation.
Maltese spent his formative years worried about what was around the corner, questioning every move as if the weight of the world was being carried by every decision. Driving Just To Drive has the artist freeing himself, not of the worry itself, but the overbearing thought process that unnecessarily creeps its way into daily decisions. He instead sits back and watches the world around him, molding and shaping what he sees into an album of simplistic beauty that swells into refreshing pop. His fourth album has him enjoying every step of the process while continuing to expand his talents into new territories that leave us with 11 songs that redefine Maltese not only as an overall artist but as a man who, much like any 20-something, is still developing their perspective on life’s most crucial questions.
Maltese finds solace in allowing these answers to come naturally, sculpting these gentle songs to encapsulate the isolating feeling of maturing in the public eye. His soft voice and natural sense of melody give these songs enough musical prowess to keep up with the best while still seeming innocent and green to the world around them. Maltese’s vulnerability makes him one of the more relatable and pure artists working today and his fourth album further proves that we are far from hearing the last and best music Maltese has to offer.
