The Matches – Decomposer

I’ve been waiting for this CD to arrive for the past three years. For three years I’ve been patiently waiting for a new release from The Matches; and for three years I’ve been anticipating their triumphant follow-up to E. Von Dahl Killed The Locals. Now it’s been three years, and I’m sitting with The Matches sophomore album in front of me and, quite frankly, I feel cheated because Decomposer didn’t even come remotely close to my expectations. Words can not describe my disappointment, but I guess I’ll try.

Decomposer does not sound like the record The Matches should’ve put out, and this could be chalked up to many reasons. The biggest and most prominent reason: the abnormally large amount of producers. Out of thirteen tracks, there are a total of nine different producers! NINE! How is the album supposed to flow when each song was produced by a different person; and not only just produced by someone else, but also recorded in different studios with different engineers too? It’s impossible, and Decomposer does not flow at all. Instead, they use the fact that people like Mark Hoppus, John Feldmann, Tim Armstrong and Mr. Brett were four of the nine producers to promote the album.

Furthermore, look at the liner notes and you will see that their manager, Miles Hurwitz, helped write every single song on here where as he didn’t help on a single song in their debut. Instead, they got help from some guy called Mike Harwood; and while I have no idea who Harwood is, The Matches better get him back to help on their third album and let Hurwitz focus just on the managerial aspect of the band.

Still, those are just little behind the scenes aspects of the album. The thing that matters is, and always should be, the music; and the music was always something that made The Matches stand out for me. Sadly, on Decomposer you would almost have hard time connecting it to the Oakland band because it sounds so different – and not a good evolvement. They start it off with Salty Eyes, a song full of string arrangements which puts the listener off guard a bit. The band claims that this was a “conscious decision” “for people to raise a brow and cock an ear”, but even while the strings may be surprising, it is still distinctively The Matches unlike many of the other songs on here. For some odd reason, they went for a more techno/electronic feel with keyboards, drum loops and the lot and sadly it doesn’t work. Listen toDrive or Little Maggots and you’ll know what I mean.

Then, there’s songs like Papercut Skin which still sound like The Matches but you can tell that is it Feldmann who is producing it; and that’s not something I want to hear on this album as he should just stick to bands like Story Of The Year and The Used. Quite frankly, the only song that is truly reminiscent of The Matches the whole way through is the Hoppus-produced What Katie Said. This song is good and has that certain Matches charm that was so evident on their debut. Shoot Me In The Smile also has that certain quality, but that isn’t even an extremely strong song and has been available on compilations for over a year now (along with 2 other songs which have also already seen the light of day). Then, the song with the absolute best lyrics on the album (because sadly, the lyrics have gone down hill too) fails to excite any energy sonically. Tim Armstrong’s vocals do not fit with the band at all, and his addition to the album, You (Don’t) Know Me, sounds too electronic for my comfort.

This album has disappointed me in almost every possible way; I can not stress that enough. It’s not horrible and better than a lot of the crap out there these days, but it’s not E. Von Dahl. The only reason I gave it a three was because I refuse to give up on it and I hope that over the next couple weeks it will grow on me; but as it is, I just hope it’s not another three years for them to redeem themselves. Next time, go back to your old roots, Find Harwood and leave all the drum loops and pre-programmed music behind.