plorentz's Full Review: Exile on Mainstream by Matchbox 20
Ten years ago, I would have hardly been able to imagine that that new band called Matchbox 20 would last long enough to one day warrant a greatest hits package, much less that I'd be even mildly interested in owning such a thing, much much less that I might eventually regard the band as, quite probably, the greatest American singles band to come out of the somber, colorless, post-grunge doldrums of the mid-90s. But here I am, and here's Exile on Mainstream, an artfully assembled package containing 11 of the band's biggest chart hits along with six new tracks, including "How Far We've Come", itself a top 20 hit this fall, and, I might add, the most fun a Matchbox Twenty song could possibly be.
With a big, booming, but nevertheless nimble beat (courtesy of drummer Paul Doucette, who, it now occurs to me, has been essential in shaping the direction of many of the band's best songs), and an urgent, sing-along chorus which evokes the end of a relationship (or, perhaps, a band?) in playfully frantic, apocalyptic terms - I! Believe! The World! Is burning to the ground! Oh Well! - the song almost certainly gets my vote, with apologies to Soulja Boy, as the Greatest Pop Single of 2007. And it can't be understated how appalled my 24-year-old self is to see my 34-year-old self writing that.
- - - - -
When the band formerly known as Tabitha's Secret debuted with the album Yourself or Someone Like You, a mild collection of angsty post-break-up scrawlings, the Matchbox 20 sound was essentially a nondescript porridge of rumpled pop-rock with grungy hints of mainstream country, their most distinctive characteristic - that is, Rob Thomas's overwrought, twangy singing - being their most unattractive. The album's first single, "Long Day", may have failed to light up the charts, but almost a year after the album's initial release, due to the tenacious efforts of a few southern radio programmers, the band's follow-up single, the confessional ballad "Push" - I wanna push you around. Well, I will! Well, I will! - became one of the most ubiquitous pop singles of 1997.
Which would have been annoying enough, had the band promptly gone the way of Tonic or Dishwalla, but subsequent singles released from the album - "3 A.M." and "The Real World", along with the aforementioned "Back 2 Good" - kept the band entrenched not only on the pop charts, but on the rock and adult contemporary charts as well into the spring of '99. Matchbox 20 were unavoidable and Yourself or Someone Like You would eventually sell more than 12 million copies in the U.S. alone, an obscene statistic that placed the record, unduly I think, in the pantheon of pop phenomena. Ten years later, "3 A.M." and "The Real World" still sound overplayed and bland, like music from vintage beer commercials or sports documentaries. But time has been kinder to "Push", which, with its conversational verses and casual self-effacement, I've come to love in spite of myself.
Hits as big as Yourself or Someone Like You tend to loom large over fledgling recording careers, but the band's long-awaited follow-up (which, amidst a torrent of Eve 6s and Blink 182s, was released under the name "matchbox twenty") 1999's Mad Season gave the band five more hit singles, three of which are collected here. "Bent" introduced a newer, harder sound, bolstered by Paul Doucette's violent drum attack, a atmospheric, Doppler Effect guitar hook, and an uncharacterstically urgent vocal performance by Rob Thomas, who completely embodied lyrics about losing his connection with reality and with himself, themes which would resurface on the album's magnificently Beatlesque title track. Between those two songs, the band released "If You're Gone", an attractive ballad full of honest-to-goodness yearning... and a horn section.
The band returned late in 2003 with their third (and so far, last) full-length studio album More Than You Think You Are, preceded by the brittle, Latin-flavored rocker "Disease". "Unwell" became that album's signature hit, in all its banjo-woven glory, but the album, despite being their most consistently accomplished work to date, was starting to peter out by the time the third single, an Elton John-ish ballad called "Bright Lights" charted.
- - - - -
Exile on Mainstream makes one or two regrettable omissions - the band's 2000 adult contemporary hit "Last Beautiful Girl" is a personal favorite - but, for the most part, states the band's case in an appealingly succinct manner. This is a collection tailor-made for folks like me who have never been able to really get behind the band, but who have nevertheless fallen hopelessly in love with maybe a half dozen of their songs. The standard version of the album splits the program across two discs so that the greatest hits have an album to themselves, and the six new songs play like a mini-album.
(Note: a deluxe edition was released simultaneously, which puts all 17 of the tracks on one disc, and then adds a "MVI" ("music video interactive") DVD which includes video track-by-track commentary by the band, and various extras - ringtones, wallpaper, photo galleries, etc. - along with an internet link to further extras as they are made available).
While none of the new tracks, all produced by Steve Lillywhite, equal the convulsive energy of "How Far We've Come", they're all worthwhile additions to the band's catalog, and suggest the core of a pretty strong studio album. "I'll Believe You When" is an ingratiating up-tempo folk-rocker (with glockenspiel and handclaps!) chronicling Thomas's hapless attempts to reconcile an irreconciliable split-up, and "All Your Reasons" and "If I Fall" are both convincing, compact rockers. Meanwhile, "Can't Let You Go" is one of those high school prom waltzes - it sorta reminds me of Journey's "Lights" even though the two songs sound nothing alike - and "These Hard Times" is a standard Matchbox Twenty ballad which recently made its own debut on the pop charts.
All in all, an Exile on Mainstream offers a fair assessment of a band that has been (and will likely remain) as easily underrate-able as they are overrate-able, a reasonably talented act that will likely never release a masterpiece album, but who have nevertheless proven themselves as reliable and tenaciously adaptable hitmakers.
- - - - -
BECAUSE YOU NEED TO KNOW:
"Exile on Mainstream" by Matchbox Twenty
Atlantic Records
Released 10/2/07
"Hits" disc produced by Matt Serletic
"New" disc produced by Steve Lillywhite
69 min.
SONGS: How Far We've Come - I'll Believe You When - All Your Reasons - These Hard Times - If I Fall - Can't Let You Go - Long Day - Push - 3 am - Real World - Back 2 Good - Bent - If You're Gone - Mad Season - Disease - Unwell - Bright Lights
Disc 1 1. How Far We've Come 3:30 2. I'll Believe You When 3:16 3. All Your Reasons 2:40 4. These Hard Times 3:48 5. If I Fall 2:47 6. Can't Let You G...More at NBC Universal
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.