Matchbook Romance

This split features two of Epitaph's brightest young things, Matchbook Romance and Motion City Soundtrack. Both contribute new songs as well as acoustic/otherwise messed-with versions of older tracks. Matchbook's "In Transit (Over You)" is an atmospheric Radiohead-ish number that eventually trades its acoustic meander for a full-on rock howl. It's a pretty nice song, but Andrew Jordan wins the award for vocal over-emoting. The seat-of-the-pants production ("Recorded and mixed...in 45 minutes," according to the liner notes) works well on "Playing for Keeps," as a band like Matchbook Romance usually favors a lush, overdone studio sound. Motion City Soundtrack performs the new "When 'You're' Around" acoustically here, but it will likely appear on their upcoming full-length in a rockier version. The version of "Sunday Warning" appearing here also benefits from its rough mix. All in all, not a bad little release for fans of these groups; neophytes will be teased for the upcoming releases. ~ Johnny Loftus, All Music Guide