Matchbook Romance / Motion City Soundtrack – Split

Lately, there has been 2 music trends that have started to emerge and become the “in-thing” to do. These two things are play emo and then release acoustic EPs. So why not merge the two to make an ultra cool EP? That’s what Epitaph has decided to do, so they gathered one of their premier emo bands, Matchbook Romance, along with the slightly more unique band of Motion City Soundtrack, and put them together to create a four song acoustic split EP.

Both bands gave two acoustic songs to the split. One of the two is a brand new song written specifically for this EP while the other is a previously released song that is just done acoustically. The EP opens up with the two songs from Matchbook Romance, In Transit (For You) and Playing For Keeps. The first of the two is of course the new track. It’s a long track, coming in at 5:34, and is slightly boring. It is too monotonous, and drags on for too long. It seems to be the same thing over and over again, and is really a bad start to the EP. But they then launch into Playing For Keeps, and the band redeems themselves. Ya, the song was released on their last album, Stories and Alibis, but it is still different then before. It is a lot quieter then the real release, but that tends to happen with most acoustic songs. They don’t do damage to the song by changing it to acoustic, and it definitely saves Matchbook Romance after their lackluster opening.

Next we get When “You’re” Around and Sunday Warning courtesy of Motion City Soundtrack. The standout thing about MCS is definitely their unique vocals. In my opinion, they supply the better half of the EP because neither of their songs were incredibly weak like the first MBR track. Their songs are a bit shorter, and don’t really drag on as much. The vocals are catchy and enjoyable, but they do lose a bit without the keyboard; that always made them so much better for me.

This Matchbook Romance and Motion City Soundtrack split is a pretty good acoustic EP. But a band always loses a certain punch when they go acoustic, and these bands are no different. Both the bands are better when they are plugged in, but I guess if you are a huge fan of either of them, then you may want to check the EP out and add it to your collection.