Review: ‘Driving Just to Drive’

“Driving Just to Drive” is an album released by Matt Maltese, on April 28, 2023. All of the album’s song’s instruments mostly consist of some combination of piano, drums, and acoustic or electric guitar, all accompanying Maltese’s smooth voice.

Sotero Morales

The Spotify album on Sotero Morales’s computer while writing notes concerning the songs.

by Sotero Morales, Reporter

The songs have a calm vibe radiating from them, with the piano and drums tending to be the most abundantly used instruments throughout the album. 

Personally, the songs I find most enjoyable would be the first two of the albums, the two being “Mother” and “Irony would have it.”

For “Mother,” the song describes what seems to be a son or daughter consoling their mother who has lost someone quite dear to them saying, “she was the daughter you never had.” The mother’s emotions of loss, akin to that of one’s scar, and just like actual scars, they heal and fade with time. 

Meanwhile, giving more attention to the instruments playing throughout the song. The song starts with just a lone piano accompanying the singer and as the words continue to fly by, different instruments join the once alone piano. They give the song a sense of togetherness, and as the song continues, the additions of instruments make the beat change and evolve, which helps keep the repetitive chorus quite fresh.

As for the song “Irony Would Have it,” it is about a singer and their lover continuing to live life together, the singer explaining multiple times how they would do anything to make their companion happy once again, for their lover in the past helped the singer through their fear and past their suffering. Now the singer repays the favor back to their companion “and now irony would have it, that I teach it back to you.”

The song’s instruments are once again mainly the piano with the drums, with a partially noticeable bass and guitar not taking too much focus in the beat though continuing to add onto it in their own small ways. The melody has a sort of upbeat feeling in it, as if the singer were singing the song right in front of their lover. 

All together the album’s themes of remembrance, love, and reflection, make it a great addition to any calm playlist with its deep lyrics and enjoyable instrumentals.