“I wanted to just start again and do everything without compromise,” begins Meg Mac of the game-changing personal switch-up that led to ‘Matter of Time’: the Sydney-born singer’s incoming third album. Having recorded and primed a previous ‘third album’ for imminent release, Mac had what she now describes as “a bit of a meltdown” with personal and professional doubts coming to a head. She scrapped the body of work two weeks before launch and moved to a remote village in the NSW countryside. “Matter of Time” came into being across 2020 and 2021 and is a document of an artistic redemption of sorts, fleshed out by her most fully-realised sonic and visual palette yet. From the lead single ‘Is It Worth Being Sad’, the first track written from the remote village as lockdown hit, to re-imagined gems from the ‘unreleased’ album “Something In The Water” and “Don’t You Cry”, to selectively seeking songwriting collaborators PJ Harding (Noah Cyrus) for “Don’t You Cry” & “Head on the Pillow” and Jesse Shatkin (Sia) to bring additional magic to the likes of “Understand” – Meg took time to realise her newly found control and purpose. Enlisting production duo The Donuts (Kendrick Lamar) to capture Meg’s stunning and versatile vocals and push them to the fore in a range of ways; you can hear their synergy across the record, from the woozy, unlikely jam of ‘On Your Mind’, the breeziness of ‘Only Love’, and the intimacy of songs like ‘Something In The Water’ or ‘Lifesaver’. All these pieces fit together to answer a puzzle that Meg has been trying to solve for years – of how to truly be satisfied and to make a record that flourishes without compromise. Matter of Time is “how I’ve always wanted to do an album” she affirms, “…knowing when it’s not right, and having the confidence to say so and to take it in a different direction”. “Now for the first time, I really feel in control.”
MEG MAC
