Review Summary: I set myself up for the greatest fall of all time
Matchbook Romance are not to be confused with Matchbox Twenty. Despite the similarities in names they are nothing alike and walk very different musical paths. In saying this though I find the main difference between the two is Matchbook Romance aged like wine before they called it quits, whilst my old friends Matchbox Twenty have aged like milk with songs such as ‘Like Sugar’ being their new standard.
I digress, ‘Stories and Alibis’ to a young little bellovddd in 2003 was a special release and to the much older bellovddd in 2023 it holds a place in my heart, right next to Beloved’s ‘Failure On’ and The Hurt Processes ‘A Heartbeat Behind’ as albums who helped define the Post-Hardcore genre for me. Now don’t get me wrong, Matchbook Romance are first and foremost a Pop-Punk band, but a brand of Pop-Punk which moonlights as Post-Hardcore. Songs like ‘Shadows Like Statues’ and ‘Your Stories, My Alibis’ throw riffs, lead licks, nice drum rolls and screaming at you which are all staples within the many waves of Post-Hardcore and whilst these moments are great and really helped me move to heavier music in 2003, now they come across as slightly forced and an illusion of who Matchbook wanted to be at the time, to fit in with the 2000’s Warped Tour bands.
‘Lovers and Liars’ was my first foray into Matchbook and it had me hooked. It had the catchy choruses of Good Charlotte (a band who in 2003 could do no wrong to bellovddd) mixed with this heavier distorted guitar and my god when I heard the layered screaming I thought I was onto some devil worshipping band, but alas, 2003 bellovddd couldn’t have been more wrong. No, bellovddd just had their first taste of what would define the next 20 years of musical listening and I had no idea at the time.
The Choruses come thick and fast, ‘Promise’ having some of their catchiest melodies and the sing-along chorus would have gone off in a dingy show in a 2003 basement somewhere. ‘My Eyes Burn’, ‘She’ll Never Understand’ and ‘Stay Tonight’ continue with the Pop-Punk vibes as we are met with dueling vocals, palm muted guitars and songs about lost love, but there is an honesty and level of musicianship within these generic Pop-Punk moments that keep Matchbook above the flood of similar bands of this time. Lead Vocalist Andrew has an above average voice, especially for the Pop-Punk level I am basing this off, he holds his own and doesn’t come across as nasally or annoying like most vocalist of this era and genre tend to. Ryan, the other vocalist you will hear throughout handles most of the uncleans and ‘The Greatest Fall Of Our Time’ features him the best and his uncleans are used just the right amount to keep Matchbook on the heavier side of the Pop-Punk wave.
Now it’s time to pass over that box of tissues because ‘Tiger Lilly’ is here, and I was not prepared in 2003. Sure, Matchbook Romance weren’t the first band to throw a generic acoustic ballad in the middle of all the guitars and noise, it’s the biggest cliché in Rock in general. But God Damnit if the ballads were all ‘Tiger Lilly’ then I’ll be ok with it. The layered vocals over the chorus just get me and I don’t want to speak these words, cause I don’t want to make things worse….. Sorry I got caught up there.. ‘Tiger Lilly’ is a terrible cliché of a song, but it’s my type of cliché and I welcome the tug on my heartstrings.
‘Stories and Alibies’ was the connective tissue for me between the likes of Good Charlotte and Underoath and it really helped me to expand beyond the things my brothers and friends were listening to at the time, and helped open me up into a new world of bands who all sound the same, and I ***ing loved it.
