The Matches – A Band In Hope

The Matches are the Taking Back Sunday of the alt-rock/pop-punk world. Just like Taking Back Sunday, all of their CDs will always be held up against their debut. No matter how good the new stuff is, there will always be that nostalgic element that destroys the album because it isn’t as good as Tell All Your Friends, or in The Matches‘ case, E. Von Dahl Killed The Locals. It is with that ambivalent nature that I awaited A Band In Hope. After waiting nearly three years for Decomposer and being sorely disappointed by the outcome, I treated this album much more carefully. I withheld my anticipation and went into the record with both excitement and trepidation. The result? Well, while it may not be another E. Von Dahl, A Band In Hope is a much more cohesive and unified effort than it’s predecessor and that counts for something.

The album opens up with AM Tilts, a song that falls somewhere between Salty Eyes and Dog Ear Paged with a driving bass drum kick and high-hats. The vocals are slower and elongated like Salty Eyesbut already you can tell that the song isn’t as forced as Decomposer. There’s a more natural flow to the song even though it does have the experimental flare of Decomposer. That sense of unforced experimentation lasts for most of the album.

The Matches are not sticking to a formula but instead expanding their repertoire with each song that they put out, adding new features to the songs through various instruments, styles and sounds. Still, these odd experimentations flow nicely and don’t seem forced compared to the experimentation on Decomposer. None of the songs are dragged down by over characterized production qualities. The producers don’t leave an imprint on the song writing, instead it’s the band who does it all.

Despite the more cohesive sensation, A Band In Hope does feature it’s fair share of extravagance and diversity. The piano ballad Darkness Rising sounds like it would fit in a broadway musical. Between Halloweens has a definite Queen influence spattered across it, particularly in the bridge which sounds strikingly similar to Bohemian Rhapsody. To Build A Mountain, which contains the standout lyric of the album with “Maybe a saint is just a dead prick with a good publicist“, is an atmospheric avant-garde track while From 24C is a slowed down electronic number.While those little experimentations are normally well done, it is the songs that have a stronger punk edge that really make the album shine. Wake The Sun is a dancy indie-pop number with a one of the best choruses of the album. We Are One is a driving acoustic number that doesn’t sound like an acoustic song. Point Me Toward The Morning follows in the same vein but expands to a full band section and both combine to become the standout section of the album. If I Were You is a tongue in cheek pop-punk track and Yankee In A Chip Shop is easily the most energetic song thanks to an insanely catchy gang vocal portion. In fact, Yankee In A Chip Shop is the perfect closer to the album – it’s just too bad it’s followed by the extremely bland Proctor RD; the only truly weak song on the disc.

This album is not E. Von Dahl Killed The Locals which is a little disappointing.
This album is not Decomposer which is rather pleasing in my opinion.
This album is not even a combination of the two.
Instead, this album is yet another step in The Matches‘ evolution. It’s eclectic, it’s random, it’s a merger of pop-punk, indie rock, electronic and more chaos. Some songs are a bit too slow but others more than make up for it.
This album is not what you’d expect from The Matches and yet, it is exactly what you’d expect from The Matches – if you’re a fan of The Matches then you’ll know what that means.