Making it a hat-trick of appearances here on Unrecorded, MatAre returns with ‘I Could Kill You But I Love You’, an emotionally charged single which navigates, and in some ways avoids, the reality of heartbreak with his signature grooves. It’s a worthy follow up to the hazy dream-pop track ‘Attach Your Memories’ and gritty darkwave number ‘That’s What People Do’ as the Atlanta-born, Florida-based musician continues to expand his sonic horizons in search of deeper emotional truth.
From his home studio in Sarasota, MatAre captures a unique balance between raw feeling and polished production. With assistance from Gabe Wolf on mixing and mastering and Francesca Pratt on drums, this artist channels early 00s garage rock, shoegaze textures and a passive-aggressive protagonist. He projects an honest and unfiltered perspective, which is so much more relatable than many post-breakup songs that present a black-and-white version of events. Instead, we get an artful juxtaposition between internalised intimacy, both in the lyrics and the unique mixture of heavy guitars and waltz-like tempo.
There’s something of Joy Division, The Cure and Depeche Mode here, although there’s a subtle reference to one of the greatest songwriters of all time. The repeated instruction “let’s dance” is a nod towards David Bowie and serves as a reminder to go with the flow of life, to step onto the dancefloor, even if it seems chaotic. Bowie also happens to be MatAre‘s son’s favourite artist, which is a nice personal touch.
‘I Could Kill You But I Love You’ adds to our anticipation for MatAre‘s upcoming album Extinction Burst, where we can’t wait to see where else his creative freedom will take us.
You can listen to ‘I Could Kill You But I Love You’ in our Indie Rockers playlist.
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