Birth of an Artist as an Old Man

At first glance, “Too Wise” is a breakup album.

It’s the debut from COMMENTARYY, the performance and songwriting vehicle for Baltimore-based singer and multi-instrumentalist Matthew C. Kelly, wherein he processes his role in years of failed relationships. 

The hallmarks are all there – breathy vocals over moping synths, high-register harmonies and longing strings, frustrated roars and angry power chords.  And the subject matter follows suit – with moody, introspective lyrics of pure feeling that explore heartbreak, alienation, loneliness, anxiety and regret. 

But this is not the debut of a young man lamenting a single breakup.  No, Kelly is middle-aged – a  Gen Xer deciding to make a permanent record out of his childhood dream, reflecting instead on a lifetime of interpersonal failures – one after another.  Singing and playing instruments since third grade, Kelly leaned on music to combat life’s depressing realities and identified with pop music’s quiet, introverted loners of the 80’s and 90’s – Martin Gore, Trent Reznor, Kurt Cobain, Elliott Smith, and Thom Yorke namely – finding solace in their words and music and, eventually, channeling their influence into his own.

For Kelly, the stakes feel higher with every passing year.  The depths of despair are profound.  It’s not you, or you, or you, or you, or you… it’s me.

So, why now?  The music tells the story.

The opening track "Brizen" introduces us to the album's landscape - layered vocals, whining synths and chugging guitars – and to Kelly’s inner world where a singular voice echoes, overlapping back on itself in ever-building waves. Chiming bells welcome the listener but contribute to a sense of unease about what’s to come.  The high-concept music video for this opener offers clues to its mysterious title’s meaning and hint at “Too Wise“ being an album full of symbolism.

First-half songs “Cherry Alliance” and “I Don’t Know Why” expose his life’s pattern over bleating synths and more traditional piano and strings respectively – revealing idyllic intentions but consistent discomfort and an inability to connect and most importantly, stay connected.

The gears turn in Kelly’s delivery, struggling to find the vocabulary to adequately surface his internal world.  Rationalizing his issue as just the way he is dooms him to repeat the sweet-to-sour cycle forever, unless he can correct his course.

“I Change” and “Articles to Read” follow, representing the impact of Eastern philosophy as a catalyst in Kelly’s life.  He describes the former as the story of three rug-pulling events from his life, from three separate decades, using just 9 words, hooky guitar riffs and a driving bass line.  The latter is a piano-based instrumental “ode” to meditation as a means of quieting a noisy interior.

“Bad Tendency”, the album’s next track explores what happens when the inner world no longer tracks with the external, real world in which we’re accountable to our partners.  It addresses the terrible position we put them in when we are not forthcoming, active participants in our relationships, or worse – we think we’re doing them a favor by withholding.  Communication emerges as a central theme of the album.

The album’s artwork speaks to issues of communication as well.  Kelly appears with a clipboard and microphone seemingly ready to speak what he has long prepared, yet lacks the mouth, or nerve, to do so. 

Over the course of the next two tracks, Kelly’s introspection begins to yield truths previously hidden. 

“Still My Girl”, a bluesy rocker, catches Kelly at the turning point from dwelling in loneliness and depression to acknowledgement and acceptance of his role and an earnest desire for self-examination – a process that was occurring “in real life” as the songs were written. 

In fact, it was the act of writing, recording and mixing this album that was the life-changing sublimation Kelly discovers in the bubbling, drone-driven epic “Born Too Old”.  Realizing his lot in life may just be to experience it alone, there is excitement in the promise of a higher pursuit, even if tinged by the hypothetical regret of a wasted life.  A liberation through art befitting of James Joyce’s Artist.  Life becoming art. The artist being transformed by the art.  The artist is the art. 

It’s here where Kelly fully comes to terms with who he was, is, and will become.  A long-time coming, his personal growth emerges like the towering tree dominating the album’s cover, resplendent and thriving.  Kelly is born anew, choosing to break the cycle.

Finally, in “Going Away”, the artist reflects on his journey from the other side – a sobering reminder of what might have been.  Instead, the finale finds Kelly “too wise” to succumb to remorse and despair, and is ultimately redeemed by the inspired activity of turning his experience into art. 

But reading that deep isn’t required.  This “breakup album” tells a worthwhile story in simple, alternative pop songs with a good lesson - excessive sentimentality is a waste of time.  Examine yourself, learn from your mistakes, move on and live the life you want to live.

What started as a quiet, personal project taken on to process and recover from a lifetime of interpersonal failures birthed an Artist authentically motivated to showcase his newfound voice, compelled to go public with an album that can be your friend if by misfortune or by your own faults you can find no better.