This comparison - especially in Andrew Jordan's now richer, deeper vocal style - will remain fresh in the mind as "Surrender" bursts next, one of the record's most straightforward rockers, guitars and drums briefly battling it out mid-song, before the soaring final chorus kicks in with "Don't waste your breath/ Save your tears for somebody who believes." Lyrics hinting of deception, regret, fear, and love give a sense that Voices is the soundtrack to a disturbing romance movie where the night finds its subjects battling demons - both in reality and in their heads. Weary piano notes introduce the somber, stalker-themed "You Can Run, But We'll Find You," a sweeping song that soon escalates to such lengths that visions of English rockers Muse become increasingly apparent. From the awesomely creepy claymation-type exterior artwork to the shadowy atmosphere that permeates each song, this is one cohesive, dark record that manages to be quietly epic and ambitious without seeming too overdone and indulgent. What awaits unsuspecting ears is a moody, intense, dramatic, and orchestrated second full-length tour de force. Stories and Alibis was a decent album in the ranks of all the other post-hardcore/emo-esque records that came out in the early 2000s, but no song on that album could at all prepare listeners for the ambition the band showcases on Voices. But they’re big and clumsy in a way that super-sizes the enjoyability.Seeing as many bands are on-fire one album and completely fizzled out the next, it was almost too easy to expect next to nothing for Matchbook Romance's follow-up Epitaph release. So what we’re left with is some impressively solid songs - in particular “What a Sight”, which soars with such sweeping, redemptive beauty that it sounds like it belongs less on a goth album and more on Abbey Road - as well as some filler, played with the same undeniable bravado, but in the end still filler.
But the consistency isn’t there yet.Įven so, it’s difficult to be harsh on them for missing their sprawling-epic vision, given that they placed the bar so high. There are flashes of brilliance –“Say It Like You Mean It” just bleeds teen ego with the line “It’s like saying we had luck with a three leaf clover / The only times you loved me was when you weren’t sober”. Moreover, Jordan’s lyrics, though earnest and hitting all the goth expectations, never reach the grandiose depth or biting wit of his aspirations. A few clunkers, such as the should-have-been-cut “Fiction” and the unnecessary “I Wish You Were Here”, also kill the momentum at the most inopportune times. They’re both good songs, they just sound utterly incongruous next to each other. This is most painfully evident when “Goody, Like Two Shoes” - an enormous, seven-minute anthem - is followed up with the hand-clapping cheekiness of “Monsters”. It’s an admirable try, but it’s really pretty damn hard to try for Muse’s grand prog-rock on one hand, and grasp for My Chemical Romance’s poppy wit on the other. The production helps them along, enormous, yet never overshadowing the organic sound.įunnily, though, the album still never gets where it wants to be. Matchbook Romance certainly pulls off the confidence - they never sound anything less than self-assured throughout the album. It’s a risky move without the same absurd confidence pulling it all together, such endeavors easily (and often) fall into self-parody. Voices is the sound of a band that, having proven its chops with a solid debut and desperately anxious to avoid a sophomore slump, has self-consciously decided to take it to the next level. Musically, they’ve maintained their natural dark melodicism, while reinventing everything else this disc sounds more like heavy metal than emo.
Every goth, punk-pop, and hardcore convention seems put in a blender here and spun to overdrive witness the chuggingly huge riffs of “Surrender”, the slit-my-wrists singing of “Portrait”.
There’s no question: Voices is ambitious. Andrew Jordan’s voice is deeper now, the sound is richer, the guitars are louder, and they’re laying down an epic of goth-rock almost ridiculous in its proportions.Īnd the scary thing is, they do come quite close to succeeding. Forget the straight-ahead, no frills emo-punk of their debut. That one sentence - about the CD case - just about describes Matchbook Romance’s second album as a whole. Big, black, and chunky, and rendered with half-gothic, half-cartoony artwork that’s both terribly cool and terribly cheesy.