Matt Maltese - Krystal (2019) Hi Res

Themes like the banality and loneliness of life have consistently weighed heavy on 23-year-old London artist Matt Maltese’s records. Following his 2018 debut album Bad Contestant, Maltese’s acclaimed 2019 followup Krystal proved more of a reckoning with the self than its dazzling, witty big brother; a sort of mental stock check and a shedding of old skin, in more subtle ways than simply growing out his immediately recognisable shaved haircut.

Returning from a solo tour of the USA in March 2019, and undergoing a split with his then girlfriend, Maltese found his world getting smaller. He needed to hit reset. What followed was months of writing and recording in his south London bedroom, as well as a good deal of, as he puts it, “stewing in the past”.

Krystal emerged from that period of quiet contemplation; an album that saw him “daydreaming about and grieving the important people and moments I’ve had in my life, and getting swamped in the details”. Again, feelings that are so far, so very 2020.