Maybe it was appropriate that Matt Maeson’s first single was called “Cringe,” for that’s the effect his music has on anyone who doesn’t view the likes of Creed, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, and Lifehouse as viable music. Indeed, he even asks repeatedly, “Do I make you cringe?” The answer is: well, yes. Looking like Macklemore and sounding like Hozier, everything about Matt Maeson feels decidedly trapped in the 2010s. To some degree then, Lana Del Rey gravitating toward him for a collaboration makes sense considering that was the decade during which she herself rose to prominence. That, and the two appeared onstage together in Oklahoma City for the Norman Fucking Rockwell Tour to perform his third-ever single, “Hallucinogenics.”
While the original song includes a video that at least offers some indication that Maeson has taken drugs as he trips out in a shitty hotel room, the song itself is too vanilla sounding to even remotely rank with the likes of The Beatles, The Doors or Jefferson Airplane when it comes to conjuring hallucinogenic imagery. Adding Del Rey to the mix doesn’t seem to help the cause. Yet because she’s so very firmly veering toward a Midwestern tip (as evidenced by her recent barrage of road trips there, as well as a song from her forthcoming album called “Tulsa Jesus Freak”), it seems she feels Maeson will help her own. Another notch in her belt toward rebranding further into the type of person who could be called racist.
That Maeson’s background was also rooted in the imposition of “good Christian” values additionally appears to fortify a connection. Maeson’s tendency, like Del Rey, to reference super-white bands of the past manifests in this track as he sings, “’Cause I carried on like the wayward son/And now through and through, I’ve come undone/And now I am just but the wayward man,” an allusion to the Kansas hit, “Carry On Wayward Son,” as well as the Prodigal Son narrative. It’s all about building on iconography for these two, apparently.
While Del Rey might simply be trying to pay it forward with her clout and give someone lesser known a wider audience, of all the people she “showcased” (which makes her sound a bit like P.T. Barnum) during her Midwestern jaunt, Maeson seems like the lamest duck to collaborate with. He’s also arguably the least memorable. What’s more, for all her posturing about girl power, selecting a bloke from the tour smattering feels a bit played. Then again, LDR tends to favor a male voice for her duets. Case in point, the song vaguely harkens back to her features on BØRNS’ 2018 album, Blue Madonna, which included “God Save Our Young Blood” and “Blue Madonna.” On a side note, the sexual assault accusations BØRNS received made LDR’s whole feminist stance thing a bit awkward.
And so, as Del Rey continues to give us “amuse-bouche” projects (including Violet Bent Backwards Over the Grass) before her much teased forthcoming record, Chemtrails Over the Country Club, we have to wonder if it’s all to help angle her toward this more bumpkin meets “indie” circa 2010s sound. We can only hope not. Then again, such a sonic decision was probably inevitable when considering how long she’s been working with the guy from Fun.
