The voices tell DBL to burn things.
Publisher: Shock Records
Mon, 13 March 2006
by: Darth Bin Laden
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Hey everybody, I'm back after a lengthy (and unplanned) hiatus, to review for you another one of Shock's quality CD's, this time NY's own Matchbook Romance, and their latest outing Voices. Andrew Jordan (vocals, guitar), Judas DePaolo (guitar), Ryan Kienle (bass), Aaron Stern (drums) make up MR and have done so for quite a while now. Voices is the 2005 follow up to their album Stories and Alibis, and is a very different kind of album to Stories indeed. So, without further ado, lets have at it!
Off the bat, you know these guys are pop-punk, purely from the cover. However, as soon as you get a few sound bites, you start to think that maybe they're not pop-punk. Well, don't get your hopes up.
Imagine you can play guitar and sing. You call up 3 of your friends, a guitarist, a bassist and a drummer, you sit in a room for 3 years doing nothing but listening to Muse, Radiohead and a little bit of Weezer, and come out, sit in a recording studio, and start writing. That's what you're going to get here.
The first track You Can Run, But We'll Find You starts off with piano and bass, with Andy's vocals reminiscent of the legendary Matt Bellamy. Straight away, there is a big leap from Stories And Alibis, whether or not this leap is a favourable one is yet to become fully clear. Its an alright song, but nothing spectacular.
 | | "Nobody rocks like...Buttonhole!" |
Surrender follows, with a more pop-punk feel to it. A funky little riff and fast-paced vocals make for a relatively catchy song. My Mannequin Can Dance is the next track, and again focuses on a pop-punk/Muse fusion that is starting to give me a little sick feeling. The thought of Muse being bastardised just doesn't fly well with me. However, the chorus is more pop-punk and shows again the bands roots, and what their fans fell in love with in the first place. Overall, nothing overly sinful about the song, but nothing inspiring either.
Goody, Like Two Shoes is what starts the alarm bells ringing. At 7 minutes long, its clear that the band is trying to add credit by creating a long song. There was another band that did that, their name is Greenday. Fans and teeny-boppers sung its praises, the more intelligent of us simply stated it was no more than 5 shorts in one song. Does MR manage to avoid this form? Thankfully yes (and the song is not half-bad either). With changing time signatures, beats and sounds, the song is quite enjoyable. Is it perfect? No way. But it rings with promise for the band's next release. Practice makes perfect, and if they were to find their niche, rather than try to meld it with Muse's, they might be onto something.
Monsters is one of the album's singles and it's easy to see why. A catchy riff, poppy vocals and lyrics, a pretty fun chorus and a catchy solo make for a 'popcorn-song' worth its weight. (Popcorn song - like Popcorn movie, not meant to be taken seriously, or really thought about, just to be entertaining). The only thing it suffers from is clichéd lyrics at a few points, which is a shame, because Andy and Friends seemed to be back in their zone with this one. Say It Like You Mean It is the next track, and is moving into that Weezer influence I mentioned earlier. Its not just influence though, it's screaming WEEZER. If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then MR are one step away from giving the LA boys the verbal blowjob. They should've just covered Hold Me and saved us all the trouble.
Portrait is the following track, and is back to the Muse/Pop-Punk fusion. With the wussiest bass distortion in the history of music, and not particularly inspiring verses, the song seems to be heading downhill, but the chorus manages to be half-decent (if we hadn't already heard it a few songs ago). There isn't much more to the song, even the instrumental is a simple riff. It's a pleasant song, but nothing to write home about. Singing Bridges (We All Fall) is a repetitive song, and that's all I think is worth saying. It's once again nothing special. Fiction is the next song, and the verse pattern is a liiiitle strange in my opinion, but the pre-chorus/chorus is damn fine. If the song was just 1:30 long and the chorus bit over and over, I'd listen to it. I'd use some of my precious bandwidth to download it. Funnily enough, the whole song improves after the first chorus. A recommended track, as the guys once again find their niche.
The last two (three) tracks are a bit of a letdown really. Fiction would've been a good finish, but Andy and Friends aren't finished yet. What a Sight is your standard pop-punk slowdown track - repetitive track, 'raw and emotional' lyrics, and an attempted epic chorus and bridge. I Wish You Were Here reminds me a lot of that late 90's rock stuff the WWE puts in a lot of their sad tribute videos, and isn't really anything special. Its similar to What a Sight, but without the epic. Hidden on the Australian Version is a bonus track, which the name of I do not know. It is an acoustic song, and throws us back to the Muse influence. Just when I thought they'd escaped it. It's not a bad song though, and recommended (if you can find out the track name). I called it Voices. Call it what you want.
 | | If you are in a band, one of the rules is: You must make this hand gesture when photographed. |
Overall, not a bad CD. Its not the next classic, and Matchbook are certainly not the next coming of Muse or Radiohead. However, the CD shows promise of them finding their zone, and if they manage to nail it down for their next CD, it should be a fun experience for fans of the band and the genre alike.
Recommended Tracks
Goody, Like Two Shoes
Monsters
Fiction
On another note folks, this will be my last review for a little while. The HSC (VCE, whatever you wanna call it, its all crap) is too much to juggle with regular reviews, and even though I'm as Aussie as they come, my parents act like Asians sometimes and barely let me play Solitare anymore. Expect me to pop up around holiday time, or big-time Pay-Per-Views (no pun intended) to work with my tag-team partner Sammy "G-Shok" Hillier. See you all at Wrestlemania! (Or possibly for a review for A History Of Violence).
Sammy's note: Good luck with the school stuff, DBL.
by: Darth Bin Laden
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More articles by Darth Bin Laden
It's sad to take hiatus, but at least it's not indefinite. Oh, and buy this CD. | |
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