Strike a match for Matchbox Twenty
June 13, 2003 | 12:00am
Matchbox Twenty
More Than You Think You Are
Atlantic Records
Matchbox Twenty, perhaps one of the last American alternative bands that still sell records and are popular with the masses, has released a brand new record, its first since the immensely successful "Mad Season."
The group, which established itself as superstars with "Mad Season," comes back with a significantly weaker album. Not musically mind you, since Matchbox Twenty still follows the old- fashioned trend they’re known for – style-wise, the band sometimes drifts into sounding like a Seventies group in the middle of a song then back again to itself.
"More Than You Think You Are" fared disappointingly in the charts but I can’t say that it’s a total bomb. It reached the Top Ten (as expected), but faded quickly down the pile of the rest of America’s garbage music to date.
Music critics could not have come-up with a better take on this record. On the album’s first single, Disease (co-written with none other than Mick Jagger), the band smartly nods to its success with Smooth with a leading riff unmistakably similar to the Spanish guitar that barraged the airwaves in 1999. It rocks far harder than anything the band’s put to radio before, but not as much as the album’s blaring opener Feel.
Still, even with these instances of "rockness," the most notable change with "More Than You Think You Are" is the band’s attempts not to be pigeonholed as an arena rock band. This is made abundantly clear on the album’s third track, Bright Lights – a song that begins like an Elton John piece and ends like a Beatles track, and manages to sound just like a Matchbox Twenty song somewhere in between.
There are instances of this grasp for credibility from critics throughout the album. Unwell features a catchy banjo intro, but then falls into the formulaic "Cut out everything but the vocals then bring it all back in for the chorus" that’s worked so well for Matchbox Twenty in the past.
And this is where the biggest problems with the album truly come into play. Sure, Matchbox Twenty has never been hugely popular with the critical crowd, but its fans have never felt alienated. Not that they’re likely to be alienated with "More Than You Think…" either, but in the end what we’re left with is an arena rock band trying not to sound like an arena rock band, which ends up sounding like an arena rock band that doesn’t want to sound like an arena rock band.
But that’s what Matchbox Twenty’s been so good at for so long, and while it’s usually great to see a band trying to move on from where it’s been, sometimes it’s best to just build on from what you know. If you’re going for the "credibility" route, you need to find your own niche – not remake what has made other bands so legendary.
Matchbox Twenty definitely has it in them to make another great Matchbox Twenty album, something they can really call their own. Just listen to All I Need or the sure-fire emotional hit single Bright Lights and you’ll be convinced once again that this is a band composed of guys who know how to make a great pop rock song. The only problem is, this time around they lost a bit of who they are along the way. Such a pity.
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