Observer called it "an energetic romp through the same ideas lots of pop-punk bands romp through: broken relationships, boredom, depression, the lure of the road", while AllMusic remarked that the band was "young enough not to raise eyebrows at the punk-pop kiddie park. But they have a better grasp of dynamics than much of their peer group". The Matches teamed up with Zebrahead for a cover version of Oingo Boingo's rendition of the Willie Dixon song "Violent Love", released in May 2005 on Dead Bands Party: A Tribute to Oingo Boingo. That July saw the release of Takeover Records 3-Way Issue No. 2, a split album which they shared with Near Miss and Reeve Oliver, with each band contributing three tracks. Harris and San Souci created the artwork for the album (they would later co-create the artwork for Newbury Park group Stole Your Woman's 2007 album The Scene). The Matches played the Warped Tour again that summer. Harris began illustrating with Melbourne-based artist Emilee Seymour; together they formed the design firm Oxen, creating the artwork for the next two Matches albums as well as for Epitaph labelmates Matchbook Romance's 2006 album Voices. Decomposer and A Band in Hope (2006–2008) The Matches made a guest appearance on MC Lars's album The Graduate, released in March 2006, performing on the track "Hot Topic Is Not Punk Rock". After a stint on that year's Warped Tour, their second album, Decomposer, was released on Epitaph that September. The album was recorded at various studios with nine different producers, including Hurwitz, Matt Rad, Mark Hoppus of Blink-182, Tim Armstrong of Rancid, Brett Gurewitz of Bad Religion, Nick Hexum of 311, and John Feldmann of Goldfinger. It built on their prior pop punk sound, adding idiosyncratic elements of pop, rock, punk, and electronics. Singles were released for the songs "You (Don't) Know Me" and "Salty Eyes", and music videos for "Papercut Skin" and "Salty Eyes". Hurwitz directed and came up with the concept for the "Salty Eyes" video, an homage to the D. A. Pennebaker film Dont Look Back (1967), in which Bob Dylan's song "Subterranean Homesick Blues" plays while Dylan holds up and discards cue cards with selected words and phrases from the lyrics; in their video, the Matches replaced the cue cards with old television sets, creating a chaotic scene. A few weeks after its release, Decomposer peaked at number 18 on Billboard's Independent