“That’s What People Do” finds MatAre pushing even deeper into the more shaded post-punk territories that some of his previous singles have flirted with, indulging darker delights and early synth urges. And if I have deliberately avoided the word “gothic,” it is only because it comes with loaded and largely misunderstood associations in the modern world, conjuring images of guitar-wielding rock bands and metal-infused crossovers.
But if there is a gothic vein running through the song, it is the same one that ran through those early synth pioneers, specifically the ones who turned away from the light of commerciality as the sound went overground to spawn the New Romantic scene and instead took darkwave to the alternative dance set.
It’s a blend of digital delicacy and analog artistry, reflecting those formative post-punk days and reminding us that the meeting of those worlds began decades ago, that plucked stings and programmed sounds have been easy bedfellows for a long time now, despite what long-haired rockers might have you believe. Its chiming guitars and dance-fuelled beats, off-beat nature, and slightly forlorn vibe easily draw parallels with The Cure’s ability to walk between sonic worlds.
And like all good singles, it points to the future, more specifically, MatAre’s upcoming album, Extinction Burst, while lyrically, it discusses what lies in store for humanity and how society’s direction of travel is often shaped by hate rather than love, division instead of unity, and flashes of anger where careful planning would have served us better.
Arguably, we, as a society, a nation, a species, have made the most important collective choices based on all the wrong emotions, but as the song says, that’s what people do.
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