Voices is the second studio album by American rock band Matchbook Romance. Production and recording for the album began in April 2005 after a year and a half of almost non stop touring. The album's sound leaves behind much of the stripped-down sound of their debut, Stories and Alibis, opting for a darker, more foreboding tone. The album was released through Epitaph Records on February 14, 2006. accompanied by the single "Monsters" and radio only single "Surrender".
Contents
Background
Lead singer and guitarist Andrew Jordan adopted a much different vocal style for this record than their previous and debut album. Andrew described the album as one that embarked “on stories of betrayal, nightmares, ghosts, and of course a little love” and that it became natural for them to grow up from their previous pop-punk influenced sound.
The cover of the album was designed by Shawn Harris from pop-punk band The Matches Inside the album's packaging, there is a small plastic panel with alternating black and transparent strips. This panel can be aligned with parts of the album's artwork to reveal secret messages, hence the liner "There are voices in the walls". Some of the lyrics to the hidden track can also be found in the lyrics of the other songs, and are represented by the capital letters that are not colored in white.
Release
The track "Monsters" was featured as the lead single from Voices and was released on October 31, 2005. The song ended up being featured in multiple video games such as Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, Madden NFL 07 and Arena Football: Road to Glory.
Track listing
All songs written by Matchbook Romance, all lyrics written by Andrew Jordan.
"You Can Run, But We'll Find You" – 4:07
"Surrender" – 4:48
"My Mannequin Can Dance" – 3:56
"Goody, Like Two Shoes" – 7:10
"Monsters" – 4:04
"Say It Like You Mean It" – 4:22
"Portrait" – 4:26
"Singing Bridges (We All Fall)" – 5:12
"Fiction" – 3:26
"What A Sight" – 4:28
"I Wish You Were Here" – 15:46
Ends at 3:47, untitled hidden track starts at 11:33.
Personnel
Matchbook Romance
Andrew Jordan – lead vocals, guitars, piano
Ryan "Judas" DePaolo – guitars, vocals, programming
Ryan Kienle – bass
Aaron Stern – drums, percussion
Other musicians
Phil Peterson – Cello & string arrangements on 'Surrender', 'Goody, Like Two Shoes', 'Say It Like You Mean It' and 'What A Sight'
Victoria Parker – Violin on 'Goody, Like Two Shoes' and 'I Wish You Were Here'
Trish Scearce – Pump organ on 'I Wish You Were Here'
Mark Rank – Piano on 'You Can Run, But We'll Find You' and 'My Mannequin Can Dance'
Production
John Goodmanson – Producer
Greg Calbi – Mastering
Mike Lapierre – Additional engineer
Brain Thorn – Additional engineer
Mark Renk – Vocal coaching
Dana Childs – Project coordinator
Benji Woerly – Drum technician
Philip Pierce – Guitar technician
Artwork
Emilee Seymour & Shawn Harris