romance is dead...

Matchbook Romance
"Voices"
(Epitaph)

Once upon a time, New York's Matchbook Romance was a promising band who could write engaging pop-punk styled tunes with a tad bit of screaming. Then the "screamo" craze started and their lukewarm album, "Stories and Alibis," was just another waste of plastic taking up space in stores across the country.

"Voices" is a vastly different album. Rather than exhaust a genre that is on its last legs, Matchbook Romance seems to have drawn influences from 90's rock bands like Smashing Pumpkins, early Radiohead, and Jimmy Eat World. There's a good balancing act here that many bands of the genre seem to ignore or are simply incapable of grasping and MR has gotten it down pretty well. They are able to write well-thought out, melodic and dense rock and roll.

The opening track "You Can Run, But We'll Find You," sets the tone for "Voices'" aggressive, yet melancholic feel and while it's easy to pin the band down as emo, they are far from it. The single, "Monsters," is an indictment of Americans and our obsession with celebrities and though it takes on the persona of a nu-wave song, the bridge rips into a solo that would make Jimmy Page green with envy.

"Voices" is one of those rare albums that you can play from beginning to end without getting terribly sick of. It's strong and signifies that the sing/scream combination is near an end that's best fit for a fairy tale.