matchbook romance - stories and alibis

This, the first album from Poughkeepsie, NY’s Matchbook Romance follows on from their e.p ‘West for Wishing’ and it’s pretty much within the same vein. Taking its cues from The Used and Finch, it opens with ‘Your Stories my Alibis’ a rock song with a benchmark emo love theme. It then progresses into ‘Playing for Keeps,’ containing a catchy melody with a wicked hook in the chorus, reminiscent of Brand New’s punk side. ‘Stories and Alibis’ is a very good collection of songs, in the new "MTV" style of emo that’s taking the music scene by storm.
There’s nothing incredibly ground-breaking on the album, but who says there has to be? it’s still a very well written, memorable record. Stand-out tracks include ‘Tiger Lily,’ fast paced rock in the style of Taking Back Sunday, ‘The Greatest Fall of all Time,’ a scremo number with some Finch thrown in for good measure and ‘Lovers and Liars,’ another hook laden punky rock song.
Overall if you don’t like emo that is arguably ‘not emo’ then you're best off avoiding it, however if you can't be bothered with the labelling issues and you like good catchy rock songs then you’ll love Matchbook Romance.

tommy

more reviews