Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

A year can go past so very quickly, projects thought of in the death throes of a winter’s evening with a crackling fire warming the blood and the imagination stirring the pot of what the coming period ahead can be shaped like, can soon all turn to nought. The same wandering thoughts will forever turn on an ever shortening wheel; it is the imperfection that maps out our lives with frightening terminal abandon.

Imperfection though only appears in the dictionary of Matchstickmen as a way to describe the reality that many face and not by their own volition, certainly not in the actions of the band who have kept themselves routinely busy during the year, pumping out single after unforgettable single. Imperfection is not a noun to mess with or use lightly, it is the state of mind that Matchstickmen warn you of and ask of you to take notice of with its thumping serial beat and serious deep undertones.

If the previous single, Cheap Little Thrill, was a playground for the summer’s attention then Imperfection is an antidote based in a factual arena, it is the upbeat to the down-right sensible and honest that makes Matchstickmen such a keen band to listen to. The feeling of depth and intensity that the band set forth with this autumn driven tune is one that doesn’t wear a mask of spring, it is purely one that asks the listener to consider that the world turns on a sixpence, that all what we see is a concentration of limber opportunities tied up in a way that the flaws and defects are easily seen on every face and every object and yet as the deepness of the song betrays, in each blemish a kind of appreciation grows.

For Matchstickmen, the music of 2015 has been one of sharp introspection and Imperfection is enough to be grateful for.

Ian D. Hall