The epic ballad by Matt DeAngelis unfolds under the persistent, almost tangible influence of the ’90s. You will feel it almost immediately when you hear the sound of the musician. As many know, that era when guitar-driven melancholy and ambitious compositional structures defined the sound of an entire generation.

Perhaps that’s why, Matt DeAngelis remains one of the most controversial and captivating artist on the indie scene. The thing is that he’s an artist who refuses to play by the rules and challenges listener expectations.

His new single “Livin’ It” was born in pandemic isolation during the pandemic. You can practically hear this song carrying the weight of uncertainty. That very fear of an unknown future that was familiar to all of us, nostalgia for a comfortable past, desperate hope for the deliverance that tomorrow might bring.

DeAngelis turns to the conceptual theme of searching for a better world, with safe streets far beyond the boundaries of chemical oblivion. He tries to find that very particle of childlike spontaneity that one way or another exists in each of us. The architecture of “Livin’ It” breaks the familiar canons of pop structure. The song is divided into three distinct sections with an epilogue, and crucially, there’s no traditional chorus—that commercial hook upon which a radio song is typically strung.

Instead, he builds into the single a chain of verses that sequentially reveal each other. This is reflected in the sound. The melody mutates and becomes more complex, however the logic of the narrative does not change. I like how, between the verses, the artist adds bridges – almost imperceptible transitions that serve as a signal that a new part is beginning.

This technique definitely references the golden age of pop music, when Roy Orbison, Elvis, and The Beatles experimented with form, rejecting the primitive verse-chorus-verse scheme. DeAngelis works within that same tradition of compositional freedom.

Furthermore, DeAngelis demonstrates brilliant control over timbre, dynamics, and intonational nuances. Everything is sung right on target, each tonal transition measured to the millimeter. As for the guitar in “Livin’ It,” it occupies a central position—it’s almost the antagonist of the narrative, a noble opponent to the vocal line. The instrument conducts its own dialogue, contests, complements, sometimes seizes the initiative. DeAngelis has allotted guitar parts generous time here.

The new single “Livin’ It” is perhaps DeAngelis’s most ambitious and technically complex work to date. This measured, almost meditative ballad manages to contain within barely four minutes an entire cosmos of meanings, references, and emotional layers. Essential listening!

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