Originally uploaded by Sicko Thelford

The songs that most of you have probably heard off A Band In Hope, The Matches 3rd album, are “Wake the Sun” and “Point Me Toward the Morning.” These were the first songs I heard off the album myself, and I was definitely impressed. Yet they still seemed to have that trademark Matches sound—nothing too drastic had changed.

Don’t let this fool you.

A Band In Hope is a clever record that blends many different elements of rock and somehow places it in to fourteen well constructed tracks. The album is everything from uplifting, power-filled, professional, catchy, honest, and in one word—rock. Songs such as “Their City” and “Yankee In a Chip Shop”, sound like a rock band that performs to sold out stadiums and arenas around the world. “If I Were You” reminds me of an awesome, catchy pop-rock track from the ‘80s (think along the lines of a more rock oriented version of Katrina and the Waves’ “Walking On Sunshine”).

Don’t get me wrong, there are some tracks on this record that are questionable. “From 24C” and “Proctor Rd.” are genuine experimental tracks, and are also genuinely not my flavor. “Darkness Rising” is the type of song that you’d see in Broadway musical, and I’m not too big on musicals (this isn’t to say that it wasn’t well written—because it definitely was).

Case in point, A Band In Hope is an original, unique rock album. Whether you’re looking for the trademark Matches sound, something more pop, something experimental, something pure rock, or apparently, something from Broadway, The Matches have made that song and put it on this record. There’s at least one song for any music lover, and each track couldn’t have been any more genuine.