A long day in the real world. (Yourself Or Someone Like You - Matchbox Twenty)

Member Name: kylecoare

Product:	Yourself Or Someone Like You - Matchbox Twenty
Date:	04/12/03 (27 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: some fine vocal performances, very catchy songs, clever musicianship

Disadvantages: one or two fillers

MATCHBOX 20 - YOURSELF OR SOMEONE LIKE YOU
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It all started a few years ago, when a friend let me borrow his copy of the album, which ended up staying in my collection for a lot longer than it was supposed to.
Well I couldn't keep 'forgetting' to give it him back, so I had to brave the real world and buy my own copy, which has stayed next to my cd player ever since.

Matchbox 20 are a band which are still relatively unknown in this country, which is a major shame as people are missing out on some fine top quality songwriting.

The band started life as a group called 'Tabithas Secret', but soon became the band we know today.

Even if you don't know the band its quite possible that you know of their lead singer/songwriter Rob Thomas, as it is his voice that propelled Santana's 'Smooth' single to number 1 in the UK and US, and gained them both a bunch of Grammy awards.

Rob Thomas is one of those vocalists that doesn't just write a meaningless song, instead he writes a little stories, normally with a hint at a failed relationship.

The bands style of music is very hard to pigeon hole as a single style as its basically a mixture of Rock, pop, country, blues and soul.
Sounding a little like bands such as the 'Counting crows' or 'Hootie and the blowfish', but with a more rocking edge and they are just plain better than them!

BAND MEMBERS
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ROB THOMAS - Vocals.
KYLE COOK - Lead Guitar and Backing Vocals.
ADAM GAYNOR - Rythem Guitar and Backing Vocals.
BRIAN YALE - Bass.
PAUL DOUCETTE - Drums.


THE ALBUM
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This album was released in 1996 by Atlantic Records.
Clocking in at a reasonable 46 minutes with 12 songs, this album is about the right length.

TRACK ONE - REAL WORLD
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Opening
with a very cool little guitar intro, this song makes any worries about the album fly out of the window.

The main backing track is a very simple crunchy electric and acoustic guitar riff, which isn't too loud or overly rocky.
The drums and other instruments are pushed quite far back into the mix, making this a very guitar orientated song.

Which leaves a lot of space for the vocals, which is where this album really shows its quality.

Robs voice has a distinctive American accent to it, with a slight drawl to it.
His voice brings the best out of all the songs on this collection, and he is surely one of the best vocalists of recent years.

TRACK TWO - LONG DAY
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This song starts out with just Rob's vocals and an acoustic guitar, it soon gets a bit more rocky by the time the chorus hits us.

Musically this is a very catchy tune, with all of the instruments recognisable.
a simple drumbeat backs up the rockier moments of the track, whilst the more mellow moments just contain an acoustic guitar.

Rob's vocals are again the high point, and on this song you get to hear a bit more of the anger and bite that he can portray in his voice.

The chorus is very tuneful in both the vocal and musical departments, which makes this song a top choice.

"Reach down your hand in your pocket, pull out some hope for me, its been a long day"

TRACK THREE - 3 AM
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Opening with a slightly poppier, strummed acoustic guitar intro, this song shows the band playing a more mellow sound than on the previous songs.

The music is again quite memorable and catchy, with its mixture of acoustic and electric moments, and some nice textured sounding instruments it all mixes into a very good song.

Vocally this is another top moment for singer Rob Thomas, who shows us a lot of emotion and feeling in this, whilst still being
able to pick out a few clever lines.

TRACK FOUR - PUSH
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This is one of the bands biggest singles to date, and it shows the band in a more rocking moment.

Although it starts fairly slowly, with just Rob and an acoustic guitar, it soon builds up into quite an energetic number.

Again the vocals are the high point, and show a lot of meaning and hurt, with Rob being able to seamlessly change the feeling in his voice in a heartbeat.

TRACK FIVE - GIRL LIKE THAT
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This one is a lot more upbeat than earlier songs on the album, with a fairly fast paced guitar riff pulling the song together.

Again the rest of the instruments are pushed very deep into the mix, leaving you with almost just the guitars and vocals.

The vocals are a bit faster than usual, and show that Rob isn't a one trick pony, even at this higher pace he still manages to put a lot of emotion into his vocals and shows why he is classed as one of America's top vocalists.

TRACK SIX - BACK 2 GOOD
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The most mellow song on the album, with its church organ style backing music and very drawn back music.

The music is very sparse, with only glimpses of each instrument, but still enough to give it an individuality that is lacking in most rock music today.

Vocally this shows Rob on top form at what he is best at, slow ballads.
Rob manages to change emotions throughout this song like no one I've heard before, from being slow and thoughtful to being powerful and angry, and it all works so well.

If you buy this album for one song, then this should be it.

TRACK SEVEN - DAMN
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A much more upbeat number than the previous song, this gives the musicians a chance to show their talents a bit more, with some thumping drums and a quite fast paced rocking guitar riff, this song should make
any rock fan happy.

No matter what the backing music is like it seems like Rob Thomas can sing a great song to it, which really shows us his quality, be it a rock tune or a power ballad this guy can produce the goods, and he doesn't fall flat on this number.

Again showing more emotion in one song than most produce over an entire album, this needs to be heard to truly be understood.

TRACK EIGHT - ARGUE
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This one is another fairly rocking number, with pretty unimaginative music it really offers nothing over any of the other songs.

But luckily for the band it contains a singer that can save even the worst music with his great vocals.

TRACK NINE - KODY
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After the previous song, which wasn't quite up to the standards set by the rest of the album, they really needed a stand out song to bring things back on track, and luckily they produced one of their best songs to date.

Kody is one of those songs which has a bit of everything, some very nice simple music, which is led mainly by some plucked guitar notes and a few well placed chords.
It also has some of the best vocals that this album contains, with one of the best choruses on the album and enough emotion to power a small city for a year.

The perfect rock tune.

TRACK TEN - BUSTED
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Here the band goes into full on hard rock mode, and unfortunately it doesn't do them many favours, as it is probably the worst song on the album.

Musically its very uninspiring, with a few distorted guitar chords and very little else.

Vocally they have ruined this song by giving Robs voice a load of distortion, which means you cant quite hear how good he sounds.

This song just about saves itself by the second half as it starts to go back to what they are best at, but by that point you've probably already skipped it.

TRACK ELEV
EN - SHAME
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Opening with a gorgeous guitar intro, with a strummed acoustic and a few picked notes it is a big difference from the last song, and is thankfully a change back to what the band is best at.

The music is very well textured, creating the perfect canvas for Rob to paint his vocals on to.

Which he does to a very high standard here, as with most of the album, it shows a high quality of songwriting and singing, which is sadly not known by many people.

TRACK TWELVE - HANG
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The final song on the album is a very slow acoustic number, with just Rob and an acoustic guitar played by himself.

Musically this is a well written tune to accompany the well written lyrics.

As with the rest of the album this shows a great vocal performance, not just by Rob but by Kyle Cook and Adam Gaynor as backing vocalists.


OVERALL
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So this is a great album, and would be worthy of almost anyones collections, but unfortunately it suffers from having little advertising so most wont know anything about the band.

But if you can get over the fact that you've never heard of them and buy this then you'll surely be happy with your purchase.

After this the band had a small name change, changing the 20 to Twenty, and released two albums Mad Season, which is a great album with a bit more of a poppy edge than this one.
More than you think you are, which I haven't got around to buying yet so I cant comment on this one.

Thanks for reading, please leave any comments you may have.

Kyle

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