Matthew Spreen doesn’t give a damn about your fancy studios. This Montreal madman built “Cheer Up” from his living room floor using nothing but a two-channel Tascam, a beat-up acoustic guitar that’s probably older than half your record collection, and a pile of samples he tortured into submission. And you know what? It kicks.
Now, before we dive in—yeah, the guy’s bio says “progressive-folk and dream-pop.” Don’t let that fool you. There’s a raw, unhinged energy running through this track that’s pure rock-and-roll rebellion. Think basement shows where the bass rattles your teeth. Think distortion pedals held together with duct tape. That’s the vibe.
Spreen does everything here. Wrote it. Played it. Produced it. Mixed it. Mastered it. The dude is a one-man demolition crew. And he’s got serious roots in Montreal’s underground—co-songwriter in the indie band KZZZM, plus collabs with BLK MTR, Sundermeeth, and Bluebird. The man’s also scored films (check Dennis Is Lonely and the upcoming Mother Octopus), so he knows how to build tension like a ticking time bomb.
“Cheer Up” hits like a glitter bomb wrapped in razor wire. You get that retro-cinema sci-fi weirdness bubbling under the surface, but then the chorus just lunges at you. Spreen layers his voice with wisps of instrumentation, synthetic textures, and enough manual sample manipulation (we’re talking pitched, stretched, reversed, distorted, EQ’d to hell) to make your average producer cry into their overpriced headphones.
The guy swims in uncertainty, irony, hope, disdain, oppression, hypocrisy, connection, and change. All of it. In one track. And somehow it doesn’t collapse. It’s like he said: “The album is like a big messy ball of pollution that still looks beautiful from space.” Yeah. That’s this song too. Ugly beauty. Beautiful mess.
Just a dude, his Tascam, and a whole lot of fire. Feel it. Cheer up, you beautiful disaster.
Matthew Spreen Socials: Bandcamp