Matchbook Romance - Stories And Alibis

  by Benjamin Howarth

published: 10 / 11 / 2003

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The Matchbox Romance are the sort of band whose CD you might throw away, because it is simply just another example of the tried and tested Drive Thru sound, merging emo with a little hardcore. But, there is something about it that makes it worth persevering with. Perhaps it is something to do with the fact that they’ve slowly worked up a fanbase through word of mouth, and that when they finally had an offer from a label to sign them, they assumed Epitaph boss (and Bad Religion guitarist) Brett Gurewitz was joking. Or perhaps it’s just that they sound so sincere. You can tell from one listen that this band means everything to them. So, so what if they sound a bit like the Get Up Kids and they almost certainly have no Lou Reed albums (well, maybe 'Transformer'!) because they care passionately about what they are expressing.   In John Cusack’s recent film 'Max', Cusack plays Max Rothman, a Jewish art dealer. He meets a young Adolf Hitler, and tries to improve his artwork. Hitler produces technically sound, but not stunning paintings that show very little of his personality. Rothman tries to say that technique does not matter and that Hitler should concentrate on expressing the misery of post World War One life. He doesn’t mind that the work is neither sophisticated technically nor boundary breaking in format. I won’t spoil the film by saying whether Rothman succeeds (though I will say that you won’t guess the ending!), but I can kind of relate this view to the Matchbox Romance. They are not especially proficient musicians, nor are they even in line with the prevailing musical ideas of the day (playing emo-rock rather than the trendy past-as-future thing everyone else seems to be), but this album is such a brilliant and heartfelt expression of what it is like to be a teenage/early twenties American from a comfortable background that it cannot be without merit. Mind you, the acoustic ballads are a tad weak; less Dashboard Confessional and more Busted, but it's only a couple of the tracks, so don’t worry!

Track Listing:-

1 Introduction
2 Your Stories, My Alibis
3 Playing For Keeps
4 Promise
5 Lovers & Liars
6 Tiger Lily
7 Shadows Like Statues
8 My Eyes Burn
9 She'll Never Understand
10 If All Else Fails
11 Stay Tonight
12 The Greatest Fall (Of All Time)
13 (no audio)
14 Untitled
15 Video 1 Live Clips & Commentary

Label Links:-

http://epitaph.com/
https://www.facebook.com/epitaphrecords
http://epitaphrecords.tumblr.com/
http://www.kingsroadmerch.com/epitaph-records/region/
https://twitter.com/epitaphrecords
https://www.youtube.com/epitaph

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