Hailing from Austria, singer-songwriter Maggie Loeffler collaborated with British producer Dan Fisher to create a record that focuses on their love for mixing rock guitars with thumping dancy disco beats. The album is called “Playing With Matches” and is composed of 10 tracks, each of which has a different twist to the same unique flavor that this duo have created. Let me dissect them all for you.

1- Falling In A Dream

Like any great intro, this track has got some amazing riffs in the middle of an engaging bassline and a highly energetic rhythm guitar tone rhythm guitar tone that gave me some anime opening and Visual Kei Rock vibes. A wonderful start that sets us up for what’s coming from the vocals too. 

2- Waste My Time

This one has a larger-than-life marching drum beat that makes you think the song is headed in an arena rock direction, breaking and exceeding all the expectations I had. This song introduced all these new elements with the factor of contradiction that made each section all the more enjoyable on its own, but also in the middle of the rest. One minute you’re heading in a complete rock direction, and the second you’re listening to a funky disco bop from the 70s…it’s fantastic.

3- Wake Me Up

This song feels like a blend of both the old and new eras of Paramore, as it perfectly fuses the funky with the pop-punky elements in a way I didn’t think was possible. The verses play an energetic line, and the chorus feels like that line got some steroids and became faster and heavier; creating a big fast-paced wall of sound that I thoroughly enjoyed. 

4- Playing With Matches

Just when I thought the album will be entirely made up of energetic and uptempo songs, this number adjusts its melodic lines and beats to accommodate to the emotional vocals and lyrics. The general vibe feels like an alternative rock piece from the mid-2000s that fits a soundtrack of a blockbuster film. 

5- Hurricane

More of the visual kei rock vibes but this time they are infused with an 80s pop rock flavor that serves to prove these guys are no one trick pony. The modern tone of the guitars as they play their riffs slightly contradicts that vibe though, making the duo’s signature sound and style shine even in the middle of an innovative track.

6- Fly Away With Me

With this song, I was able to see a quality of the album that I wasn’t focused on before: the wonderful production. The spacing of the drum makes you notice how everything is well-balanced and sounds crystal clear, to the point where you could already imagine those songs being played live and getting them stuck in your head.

7- Square One

Somber verses against a loud heavy chorus- a match made in heaven. I really love how this song was composed and how the chorus has that lengthy vocal phrase that made me wanna sing along. 

8- Speed Of Light

This song starts out with a verse that makes you feel like it’s headed towards a slower and more epic direction, while the chorus has another say. As usual, the chorus has a heavy drum beat and higher-pitched vocals that people will most definitely enjoy singing along to in the live shows. This song already serves as the crowd-pleaser of the record. The melodic solo that plays here too is one of the album’s most memorable sections for me.

9- 4am

Another song that has 2000s alternative vibes, and probably one of my favorite songs off the whole record too, and that’s hugely because of its masterful chorus.

10- Paper Thin

This song is super emotional and has an epic vocal arrangement…one of the things that makes it an amazing album closer. 

In conclusion, this is a record that fuses elements most listeners would probably think don’t match with one another, but somehow they make it work and they make it sound amazing. I really loved how the diversity did not break the thread of the common vibes and style that make you feel like these songs come from the same record and the same style of production. An overall fantastic listen that I will keep in my playlist for a long while.

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