Matt Maltese is back at it, pulling on heartstrings and stirring up memories you’d probably rather not revisit. His first release of 2025, ‘Anytime, Anyplace, Anyhow’, is a lush, poetic ode to that one person who just won’t leave your brain, no matter how much time has passed (or how much you’ve tried to convince yourself you’re over it).
“There are those people for all of us that occupy a certain incomprehensible place in our brain,” Maltese says, somehow managing to articulate what most of us couldn’t put into words. “A place we don’t quite have control over… remembering and imagining them against your will.” Basically, it’s not your fault you still think about them.
Maltese comes into 2025 with serious momentum. Last year saw him crisscrossing the globe, playing everywhere from Tokyo to São Paulo to a sold-out Brixton Electric back home. He even hit Los Angeles’ iconic Wiltern theatre, officially ticking “make it big in America” off his list. Not bad for a guy who got his start writing about awkward romantic encounters and existential dread.
Maltese’s journey from indie oddball to global favourite started in 2018 with Bad Contestant, the album that introduced us to his knack for turning awkward, deeply British humour into something oddly profound. Over the years, with albums like Krystal and Good Morning, It’s Now Tomorrow, he’s honed a style that somehow makes heartbreak sound… kind of funny?
He’s not just writing songs for himself, either. In 2023, he launched his own indie label, helped shepherd the career of Portland artist Searows, and even made his theatre debut, writing music for the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Twelfth Night. The Observer called it “inspired,” which is the sort of thing you’d frame and hang in your kitchen.
With ‘Anytime, Anyplace, Anyhow’, Maltese continues to do what he does best: take the everyday struggles we’d rather not talk about and turn them into something beautiful. If the track is anything to go by, 2025 is going to be another big year for one of the UK’s most unique songwriters.
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