Nineteen years after stepping away from TV live performances, Matt Corby surprised everyone, including himself, when he agreed to play ABC's New Year's Eve celebrations. The singer-songwriter had avoided such situations ever since competing as a 16-year-old on Australian Idol.
"I swore to myself I would never put myself in that position again," Corby wrote in a social post after the fact. "I couldn't really handle the negativity and ridicule." He added, "I like the ABC. When I got the call about it, everyone was just expecting a 'No' from me."
In addition to his own soulful original material, Corby shone covering INXS's Never Tear Us Apart and Olivia Dean's Man I Need. "It felt great on the night and afterwards I was really proud of myself," Corby reflects. "You get to make peace with your younger self. It's freed me up mentally to be able to do it again, potentially. Or not be so afraid of putting myself out there."
Overcoming his "past trauma" arrives with the release of Tragic Magic, Corby's new album and fourth consecutive top 10 appearance in the ARIA Album Charts. It's another showcase for his show-stopping voice, but also exhibits his considerable skills as a producer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist.
Corby's pipes dazzle on the slow-burning War To Love, while the smooth Long and Short hovers somewhere between Marvin Gaye and Bon Iver. Burn It Down, co-written with fellow vocal powerhouse Meg Mac, struts along an athletic bassline and stabbing disco strings. Maggie took an impromptu recording of magpie's birdsong and spins it into cinematic, psych-dipped pop.
As he's done since 2018's acclaimed Rainbow Valley, Corby played nearly all the instruments on the album but was less concerned with exhibiting technical chops. "I dropped a lot of the pretence, needing to show myself I'm a good player," he admits. "I felt comfortable in the level at which I'm playing instruments, that I felt I had less to prove to myself, which is good."
