Matt Underdown
EP: The Darkest Place
Release: 7th August

The Darkest Place is the second solo from Bournemouth based Erica Drive frontman Matt Underdown.

Written between 2018 and 2020, Matt explains his mindset at times of personal struggle and failure to adapt, this is something you can really feel throughout the EP.

This EP The Darkest Place starts off with Life Of A Simple Man, straight away you can feel an aura of struggle with the lyrics “are we born into a world that does not care, are we lead by those who really do not know” almost like a frustrating struggle to understand how and why the world is such a dark place. With a calming feel throughout the verses, the tension builds a lot towards the chorus where the power of the vocals push through and drive the emotion through to you.

Pippin’s Song brings out more passion, this time relating to losing a loved one, remembering all the amazing things that person used to do that brought joy. With beautiful vocal harmonies, the emotion behind these words is really driven home. In the verses the harmonies on the one line really helps the song flow and build, then in the chorus it raises the feel of the song so much, almost to a joyful place, where you’re remembering the happy times with lyrics like “We’re gonna sing until our lungs give out”. With the chorus I almost feel like I’ve been experiencing singing with someone as loud as I can, crying “until my heart says it’s had enough”. There’s something about those lyrics that really wake something up inside.

The Good Old Days is also about loss, but whereas Pippin’s Song feels like the loss of someone you love through passing, The Good Old Days seems to be more about possibly something going wrong in a relationship and the subsequent breakup and feelings of regret.

Another really powerful song, Matt touches on wanting things to return to how they were when everything was good, wanting to turn back time and try going back and trying again. The song has more powerful vocals and beautiful vocal harmonies. I also really like the contrasting vocals towards the end, the main vocals driving the song asking to return to The Good Old Days while the backing vocals are almost like an inner monologue actually remembering what used to happen back then.

The Darkest Place closes with track seven I Won’t Let Go, a beautiful song that does a good job of rounding up the EP. Where other songs have talked about making mistakes and losing loved ones, I Won’t Let Go is almost like a realisation that you can’t just hide behind those mistakes or cover them up, but learn from them and try to become a better person through it.

Matt Underdown’s second EP is a really beautiful collection of music, there is more passion in the music and lyrics than you’ll probably hear in a while. Matt has done a fantastic job of opening his world to the listeners and I really feel like I’ve lived through some of the experiences described in the songs.

  –  Chris Brain

Connect with Matt Underdown
Facebook    Twitter
iTunes    Spotify    YouTube