Matchbook Romance
Stories and Alibis

THE REVIEW

It's incredible how a band can change, evolve, and reinvent itself from one album to another. Certainly, three years have passed from the already reviewed "Voices" of 2006 to this "Stories And Alibis" of 2003, during which Matchbook Romance surely experimented a lot. However, going back in time and analyzing this debut of theirs, one cannot help but greatly re-evaluate their second (and so far last) album. Don't misunderstand me, we're not dealing with a total failure. It's just that, having listened to and being pleasantly surprised by "Voices", I was hoping to find the same elements in the American band's debut... A hope only partially dashed, since there are damned catchy and intense pieces, but in many parts the enveloping and layered guitars, the modulated and highly expressive voice, and the tense and subtly unsettling atmospheres are missing. In short, what we have is an emo-punk album, good for the time it was released, excellent in its entirety for a certain segment of the market (even current), but unfortunately just barely sufficient for (I believe) many other listeners.

The second track and title track starts off strong and loaded, aggressive enough with a very convincing chorus. To be honest, in this song, you can sense certain sounds that will later appear more developed in the second album, both in the verses and the tumultuous finale, with excellent guitar and rhythm section work.

The same can be said for the following "Playing For Keeps", where nice tempo changes appear for the first time, and keyboards frame what is a nice emo/indie picture, where the band proves adept at varying between different musical moments within the same composition, showing good creative ability.

To find some other nice inspiration, you must skip to "Tiger Lily", an acoustic ballad that nonetheless has a certain sweet and melancholic pathos. It must be acknowledged that the track knows how to play its cards, based on easy-to-grasp lyrics and a voice finally very expressive and intense.

Also worth mentioning is the eighth track "My Eyes Burn", surely one of the best pieces of the work, centered on now more rocky and sharp guitars, compelling in its verses and especially in the chorus, perhaps one of the nicest pieces in the (brief) discography of our guys.

I would conclude everything with the final "The Greatest Fall (Of All Times)". The summation of the band's musical thought, the track beautifully showcases purely emo-core moments (screams accompanying the chorus and the intense, expansive, and expressive guitar arpeggios), combined with punk bursts (in the sudden accelerations) and singing at the peak of its range and purity. All in all, a nice piece, capable of engaging and surely able to garner some approval practically everywhere.

The album, unfortunately, also consists of songs that couldn't be more "teen". At certain moments, it actually feels like you're hearing the soundtrack of certain American films about college or university life, and this may annoy those like me who are used to a sound a bit more mature and less carefree (if I may use that term). The pop-punk strumming may be enjoyable, but at a certain age, and in any case, they belong, in my view, to a musical past already covered by many bands and thus already worn out. However, it is true that it is, after all, the debut of a band whose roots are in this genre of music, hence the tracks I mentioned are even more praiseworthy. Furthermore, as I already said, it's an album released five years ago, and much has changed since then (as evidenced by the band's second album).

All things considered, it's a six-and-a-half job: terribly weakened and softened by certain compositions, partially rescued by others of a distinctly better quality. I repeat, it is absolutely not to be discarded, but if you want to know the more mature Matchbook Romance, I recommend the excellent "Voices", an album with certainly more emotional impact and surely much more varied and better realized.