Vetrus Reviews: "Stories and Alibis"

Vetrus Reviews: “Stories and alibis”

By: Matchbook Romance

Overview: After the band's beginning EP, “West for Wishing”, Matchbook Romance released this, their first full album. Note: Matchbook romance is not to be confused with either matchbox 20 or My Chemical Romance, or that they are some kind of freakish combination of the two. MOVING ON, “Stories and Alibis” has a whiny, angst-ridden punk sound that, somehow, despite that description, sounds very good. The band experiments with many mechanical sounding audio bits that are scattered throughout the album, and make the various tracks very cohesive. There are a variety of songs here worth checking out, and they are:

Highlight songs:

Your stories, my alibis- A highly charged, driving beat introduces a song meant for the opening of an album.

Promise- A dedicated love song, easily Matchbook Romance's “Wake me up when September ends”, a amorous tune amidst a sea of pop-punk.

My Eyes Burn- Honestly, a little too whiny. It's too easy to make fun of for me to take it seriously... but still fun to listen to, nevertheless.

The Greatest Fall (of all Time)- Probably one of the most epic non-orchestral songs ever written, with throat-tearing screams of pure emotion, and a double-bass drum action that could blow your brain out of your head. BRILLIANT!

Review: “Stories and Alibis”, besides its songs, has other good points, including the case design, which looks like a leather-bound journal, and the lyrics booklet appears as an insert in said book, like a note left especially for you. The band seems to take a Beatles angle, and gives a reference to “Sgt. Peppers lonely hearts club band”, with a long silence, followed by garbled speech, and undefinable noises. If there is anything to not like about this album, besides a few songs falling short of being interesting, it is that there are about 70 3-second tracks that split the actual track list from the album's “Inner grove” (to use the term that the Beatles described the phenomenon as). Not to mention that the track listing is only on the insert of the booklet... and it is printed in extreme cursive, and (here' the kicker!) BACKWARDS. Something so terrible, it HAD to be one on purpose. If you want to listen to a lot of the good music again, it is actually faster to press “back” a ton of times backwards to track 1 than all the way through the other 70-ish blank ones to get back around to number 1 again; overall, the music is forgiving though. The accentuation of those things, although interesting for effect, are stupid for album design, and it just gets annoying. But the band works its way up, which is why I give “Stories and Alibis” only a-

7.0 out of 10

“You're as welcome as cancer, but my door is always unlocked”(a line from the album, which strangely fits my attitude towards the album. It is enjoyable, but not great.)