Unmatched creativity

While their less talented peers have found success, The Matches’ more complicated approach has left them without a ticket on the emo gravy train. The Oakland, Calif.-based band have shared the stage with the scene’s most popular, but their previous album, 2006’s Decomposer failed to attract much attention. Undaunted, The Matches are back with another album full of orchestral emo, hoping it catches on this time.

Hope sees The Matches further blur the lines between multiple genres, which set the band apart from most everyone else.  Present are pop anthems (“We Are One”), clunky experimental jams (“From 24C”) and old-time ballads (“Darkness Rising”). Sprinkling awkward arrangements and string sections throughout, The Matches manage to make it work.

The diversity of sounds leads to the best tracks throughout Hope. The aforementioned “From 24C” has a hard-to-define rhythm that bumps along slowly with random guitar parts slipped in as vocalist Shawn Harris’s voice weaves a tale of a scorned lover sneaking into an ex’s apartment: “Faith oh faith, is a way to believe lies we need / Then to be faithful is to be truthless / But that’s more than I need to say.”

But the band shows that its music can switch genres up at the blink of an eye.  Harris and his fellow Matches motor through “Yankee In A Chip Shop” in just more than two minutes, creating a great head-bobbing pop-punk gem. Sure the chorus sees the band repeating the bizarre title over and over, but the gang vocals make up for it.

“Wake The Sun” is the best track because it combines The Matches’ best experimental qualities. The mid-tempo mix uses quirky riffs, ringing bells, Harris’ talky vocals and quality lyrics that don’t quite make sense. Harris muses, “Who hired the walls of the station / To arrest my imagination / Profit from my place under the callous thumb”; it’s weird, but oh so catchy.

A Band In Hope probably won’t put The Matches much closer to the mainstream limelight, but it should. The band’s creativity is nearly unmatched within the scene, which makes them untreatable for some. All they and intelligent music fans can do is hope they get their due.