Matchbook Romance - Stories & Alibis (CD)

All Music Guide

In an assertive fulllength debut, Matchbox Romance deals out a strong hand and plays it well. The winning cards include expressive lyrics delivered most of the time by twin lead vocals, songs powered by a combination of sharp hooks and dramatic changes in dynamics, and a multilayered production, in which Brett Gurewitz allows plenty of room for the sound to chime, buzz, and roar over Aaron Stern's thundering drums. (Stern especially loves doing double bass drum fills, which sound the way a Muhammad Ali combination must have once felt.) They deliver build their choruses and other peak moments around massive blasts of guitar anchored by bass lines on the root of each chord for maximum impact. At the same time, they don't skimp on the details; guest keyboardist David Palmer's unobtrusive bleeps and gurgles bring some variety to the otherwise monochromatic timbre, especially in quiet interludes or long final chords. With this sort of intensity and bravura, Matchbox Romance sets a high stan...dard for itself and shows every sign of meeting it on future releases. (Beware, however, the noodling and noise that flare up after more than seventy tracks of silence. Even without this tired gag, there's more than enough to chew on throughout the CD's twelve real cuts.) Robert L. Doerschuk, All Music Guide Read more Less