“As the World Caves In” by Matt Maltese

Simply put, “As the World Caves In” is a love song. It centers on a couple spending their last moments on earth in each other’s company while they watch the world come to an end. Speaking with The FADER, Maltese revealed that the song is centered on a couple (former British Prime Minister Theresa May and American President Donald Trump) spending their final “night of romance” with each other while triggering nuclear warheads that destroy the entire world.

According to Maltese, he penned the song in 2016, shortly after May won the vote to renew the UK’s Trident nuclear weapon.

Writing and Production

Maltese is the sole writer of this song whereas Hugo White is its sole producer.

According to Maltese, the despair that swept across the globe in the aftermath of the 2016 US Presidential Election that saw Donald Trump become president as well as Britain’s 2016 referendum to leave the E.U. inspired him to pen the song.

When did Matt Maltese release “As the World Caves In”?

Maltese released it on the 6th of March, 2017. It was part of Maltese’s maiden album, titled “Bad Contestant”.

Who is Matt Maltese?

Matt Maltese specializes in a particular brand of music, known to some as schmaltzcore, which has earned him a faithful following. There are conflicting reports online concerning his actual age. But Famous Birthdays, a site that specializes in relaying such information, states that he was born in 1990, thus making him 30 years old as of the writing of this post. And in trying to put his sound into words, note that Maltese has been compared to the likes of Leonard Cohen and Morrissey of The Smiths. 

And like Morrissey, Maltese himself hails from England – its capital city of London to be exact.  His big break came in 2015 with a track entitled “Even If It’s a Lie”, which also happens to be the earliest track in his Genius discography. That particular song was self-released, but its success ended up scoring the singer his first deal, which was with Café Bleu Records. And Matt scored an even bigger hit in 2017 with “As the World Caves In”, which stands as his most-successful song to date.

Matt Maltese’s Bad Contestant album

The aforementioned “As the World Caves In” is the standout track on Bad Contestant, Matt Maltese’s debut full-length album, which came out in 2018. Said project is a product of Atlantic Records and represents the singer’s first release on a really big label. It features 11 tracks in total, which combined run for about 40 minutes. 

And even though by the looks of things it hasn’t sold millions of copies or gotten much publicity, the album has been critically acclaimed, i.e. scoring four out of five stars via reviews by NME, DIY and even on Amazon, the latter of which it has been ranked by listeners themselves.