Having seen some of their elders wither on the Warped Tour, next-generation emo groups have decided to graduate from the genre before its shelf life expires.
Matchbook Romance's dubious debut,
Stories and Alibis, nominated the quartet as "Least Likely to Succeed." However, the band's recent
Voices transcends its whinecore origins. Matchbook Romance has taken its strengths — peppy percussion, fist-pump choruses, catchy riffs — and given them a savage twist, so the hand claps sound haunted, the group vocals recall angry mobs and the guitars chime as if a ghostly wind were making them shiver. Most of its statement-record arsenal (string section, piano, epic codas) won't be available onstage, so the live set occupies the transitional territory between albums — sweeping songs played with primal pop-punk energy.
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