Yourself Or Someone Like You Will Like This! (Yourself Or Someone Like You - Matchbox Twenty)

Member Name: IainWear

Product:	Yourself Or Someone Like You - Matchbox Twenty
Date:	17/02/02 (171 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Rob Thimas has a great voice, Well written tracks, Suits any occasion

Disadvantages: Difficult to characterise, Tries to be all things to all men

At the risk of sounding like that bloke from the Fast Show, aren’t impulse buys great? I mean, you go out, you grab something because the advert looks appealing or you overheard a bloke down the pub say that some bloke he works with’s sister thought it was brilliant. I’ve wasted thousands on lipstick that way, but that’s a story for another day, I guess.

What I’m far more likely to do is buy a book as the cover looks nice, or the stuff on the back sounds OK. Or I’ll buy a CD because the cover looks good, or because the first single sounded like my thing, or there was a favourable review, and it sounded like an album I’d enjoy.

And so it was with this album. As for many people, Rob Thomas, Matchbox Twenty’s lead singer was brought to my attention by his vocal work on Santana’s “Smooth”, a song I love, on its’ way to No 3 in April 2000. I’d heard from someone I knew that Matchbox Twenty were a pretty decent band and so, with a few quid to spare in my pocket, I wandered into HMV one day and left with both Matchbox Twenty’s albums.

Strangely enough, it wasn’t this album that immediately appealed to me. “Mad Season” with its’ strange lyrics and smoother, less angry sounding vocals was the one that was played the most frequently. This album got a couple of listens and then, like an older sibling, had to sit back whilst all the attention was focused on the new arrival. But, unlike most children, it sat patiently and waited. And waited…

It wasn’t until the spring of last year, when I booked tickets to the big Bon Jovi gig at Milton Keynes that this album got a look in. Matchbox Twenty were the support act, and an Australian friend of mine who loved this album was quite upset she couldn’t make it along with us. Until we discovered (well, she discovered!) that Matchbox Twenty were playing in Hammersmith a
few nights before to celebrate the Hard Rock Café’s birthday. We got tickets, and I decided to perform my age-old week before a gig routine of playing nothing but the band’s music so I could sing along to all the words at the show. This was complicated by having five gigs in a fortnight, but I managed - if only just. This was partly because I knew a lot of the lyrics from the other bands anyway, but mostly because this album went on and stayed on.

This was the point at which it became apparent that this is, by far, the better of the band’s two albums. The anger I’d heard the first time around gives it a rockier edge, of which I thoroughly approve, and the lyrics are no less inspired at parts on this album. There are fewer ballads, and their sweetness contrasts admirably with the faster paced songs. And Rob Thomas’ voice has a slightly huskier edge to it on this album, which is when he sounds at his best.

“Real World”

This is a great way to start any album, and is certainly my favourite track, and shows off the band at their best, as far as I’m concerned. A brief drum intro into a decent blues-style guitar riff, that repeats through the song and provides instant recognition when you hear the song again. Rob’s voice has its’ traditional edge to it and it’s a fun mid-tempo pop-blues number.

The sing is about living your daydreams. What do you want to be and what would happen if you were? It’s part fantastic, part achievable, and takes you to a place where everyone wishes they could be, with the real world leaving them alone.

“I wonder what’s it’s like to be a superhero/I wonder where I’d go if I could fly around downtown/From some other planet, I get this funky high from yellow sun/Boy I bet my friends would all be…stunned, they’re stunned”

“Long Day”

This is at a slightly
slower tempo than the previous song, but I still love this one. It starts with Rob’s vocals and an acoustic guitar, and the electric guitar and drums kick in at the end of the first verse. It’s quite a driving guitar, but this fades in and out, disappearing during the bridge, and reappearing during the chorus. It gives the song a kind of disjointed edge, but there’s a feeling of anger in Rob’s voice towards the end, which fits in with the song’s subject.

It’s about being left by your lover, and how time seems to stand still and that day go on forever, and about how all hope for the future seems to have evaporated. I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one who’s been there.

“Reach down your hand in your pocket/Pull out some hope for me/It’s been a long day, always ain’t that right”

“3am”

Another slightly slower number, but still fairly mid-tempo, starting with a guitar with almost a country sound to it. Rob’s vocals come in at a lower volume and much more restrained than the previous song, although the song picks up during the chorus.

It’s a song about madness, I think! The lyrics suggest that the female character in the song is losing it a bit, but the picture it paints of “ a colour portrait world” and happiness as a welcome mat is pretty vivid, if a little worrying.

“She says it’s cold outside and she hands me my raincoat/She’s always worried about things like that/She says it’s all gonna end and it might as well be my fault/She only sleeps when it’s raining/And she screams and her voice is straining”

“Push”

You know you’ve arrived when “Weird Al” Yankovic takes one of your songs and fits it into one of his famous polka mixes on his album (2000’s “Running With Scissors”) And it got the slot follow
ing Madonna as well, which can’t be bad!

A very restrained guitar and vocal intro on this one. It’s a slightly slower start that the preceding tracks, and Rob’s vocals have lost a little of their angry edge. Until you reach the chorus, when the song picks up.

It’s a song about someone who is having second thoughts about the situation and the relationship they are in. It’s about the moment of realisation that you’re not getting what you want out of a relationship, and wondering if it can be changed into something more like your dreams, and if it’s really the best thing for you.

“I wanna push you around, I will, I will/I wanna push you down, I will, I will/I wanna take you for granted/I wanna take you for granted I will”

“Girl Like That”

A guitar intro that you will be able to pick out a mile away once you’ve heard it a couple of times. The pace has picked up a little, and there seems to be a lot more bass in the guitar riffs throughout the verses, and the guitar is more to the fore during the bridges and the chorus.

It’s about being in a relationship that really isn’t any good for you, but not being able to leave as you’re more afraid of being lonely that of being in a bad relationship. It’s almost a “bird in the hand is worth two in the bush” situation, I guess. If you can’t figure out why someone you know stays in a relationship they’re in, this could be why.

“Well you got to think with a girl like that/Any love at all, is better than nothing/Is better than nothing”

“Back 2 Good”

Anyone who is thinking of that Take That song after looking at this title needs to be shot. Oh. Oh dear. Back in a minute. (Sound of a gunshot from offscreen) OK, that’s better. Got that out of my head now.

A much slower song, perhaps the fir
st of the true ballads on this album, largely Rob’s voice, with a drum beat and a guitar, but there are also some woodwind instruments, which is not something Matchbox Twenty generally use. Rob’s voice is more set up to express anger, so it doesn’t work quite so well on a ballad, but it’s still a good song. It’s the longest track by a long way – more than a minute and a half longer than anything they’ve done. But it doesn’t seem that much longer, which is a testament to how good a song it is.

It’s about being in a relationship that has gone horribly wrong, perhaps that same relationship as in “Girl Like That” but not knowing what to do to make it better, to return the relationship to it’s former, better state.

“And everyone here, knows everyone here is thinking ‘bout somebody else/It’s best if we all keep this under our heads/I couldn’t tell, if anyone here’s was feeling the way I do/But it’s over now, and I don’t know how, it’s over now/There’s no getting back to good”

“Damn”

A slow steady drum intro, before a guitar riff. Not quite a ballad, but certainly a slower number than the early tracks on the album, although the tempo increases for a section after the second chorus. The whole band provides backing vocals, and it’s an angrier song, which suits Rob’s voice very well.

It’s a reflection on the way the world treats you, and about how sitting around and letting it get to you doesn’t really help at all! It’s part anger at the way things have turned out, and part lament for a better life.

“Things got turned round/Don’t know where I started from, damn/Can’t eat, can’t sleep/Could have been a bigger man, damn”

“Argue”

A loud, slightly faster paced intro, with the whole band inv
olved. Another song with a tint of anger in it, which makes Rob’s voice sounds at its’ best. There’s some strange sound effects during the chorus, which makes you think there’s a problem with your CD player if you’re not concentrating properly, but this is only a minor concern.

It’s about how people shouldn’t argue if you get along that well. It’s about the pointlessness of disputes. Maybe there’s a lesson in there for all of us.

“If you want you can get to know me well/We get along so we shouldn’t argue/And I don’t know, said I don’t know/All these feelings, cloud up my reasoning”

“Kody”

This is another slower song with a guitar intro, and the drums very much in the background. Although the vocals are a little too rough for this to be a perfect ballad, it gives a tinge of sadness to the song, which the lyrics always suggested.

It’s a song about a child that has passed away, and the thread running through it is that they are waiting for him to come back, and almost expecting it to happen. In the meantime, alcohol numbs the pain.

“So please hand me the bottle, I think I’m lonely now/And please give me direction, I think the hurt set in/And I don’t feel nothing”

“Busted”

Another guitar intro, although a slightly more robust sound, and an angrier song, which suits Rob’s voice a lot better. There’s a lot more bass here, but at a number of points, the instruments fade away into the background a little, leaving Rob almost alone, which works very well.

The song is about change by and large, and about how love doesn’t.

“I dreamed that the world was crumbling down/We sat on my back porch and watched it/I dreamed that the buildings all fell down/We sat on my back porch and watched it”

“Shame” r>
A simple mid tempo guitar intro, which is joined by the drums and Rob’s vocals. The guitar sound is a lot clearer than in many of the previous songs, as is Rob’s vocal.

It’s a song about how things change and how the bad things have a way of sticking in the memory, and all the good things are forgotten. The end result is that when you look back at the past, the feeling of shame is the main one.

“Funny how it comes to pass, that all the good slips away/And there’s no-one around can remember being good to you”

“Hang”

The album closes of with a ballad. This one starts with an acoustic guitar intro, which is unusual for this album. For most of the song, the guitar and Rob’s vocal are the only sounds. The second part of the verse has an echo on Rob’s voice which is also unusual, as his isn’t a voice that needs any fiddling with, but which works very well indeed, adding some atmosphere to the track. It’s an understated song, and finishes the album off well. In much the same way as “Real World” dragged you in and made you stay, this song bids you a fond farewell.

It’s about a relationship that has needed changing for some time, not necessarily because it’s bad, but because it seems to be stuck in a rut. In the end, when change doesn’t occur naturally, she walks away, leaving him swinging in the breeze.

“And we always say, it’d be good to go away, someday/But if there’s nothing there to make things change/If it’s the same for you I’ll just hang”

It’s kind of hard to categorise Matchbox Twenty and say “if you like (name band), you’ll like these guys.” They are a little too light to be rock music, a bit too happy to be blues, and haves a bit of an edge to then, which prevents a description of them as purely pop musicians, in the 1990’
;s sense of the genre. I’m a rock fan, and I loved it.

Quite simply, if you like music, you’ll like these guys. There is something in here for everyone to enjoy. There’s a little party music, a little background music, and some insights into human relationships which pretty much everyone wants to provide these days.

A fan of any of the kinds of music I’ve listed above will find something to enjoy in here, possibly without loving the album. If you have varied musical tastes the way I do, and are quite happy listening to all of those types, then this is a great album to have.