Here, they tone down their performances and while the end result is heavily produced, the overall feel is more relaxed and welcoming than the debut. Prior to this album, Thomas had a tendency to oversell his songs, not just in the delivery but in the writing, and the band followed him along. That alone makes Mad Season more engaging than the debut, but the real surprise is the group’s growth as craftsmen and Rob Thomas’ progression as a songwriter and singer. That shift in direction may disarm some fans of the debut, which was pretty much just guitars, but the band winds up with a big, bright, shiny album that’s livelier than its predecessor. They exploit this strength by expanding the production, adding horns and layers of keyboards to their sound, opening up the mix, and emphasizing their melodies. Throughout this record, Matchbox Twenty seem unashamed that they sound their best when they’re simply a mainstream rock band. They trade that sound for a varied, accomplished, smooth production on their second album, Mad Season. On Yourself or Someone Like You, Matchbox Twenty’s ability to craft sturdy, mainstream rock was overshadowed by their reliance on loud guitars, colorless production, and bombastic vocalizing. What they didn’t realize was that Yourself or Someone Like You wound up being the point where mainstream American rock stopped being willfully eccentric and returned to being unassuming and kind of ordinary.ġ4 – Busted (Live From Australia) For many observers it was still unexpected, because the sound seemed a little plain. So, it shouldn’t have been surprising when the album found a wide audience. It is, however, solid, American rock, reminiscent of a blend of Petty and Pearl Jam. Their music is not flashy, nor is it as ingratiating as Third Eye Blind’s pop instincts. Other bands with similar sounds that could have done the same thing, yet Matchbox Twenty distanced themselves from the pack with sturdy songs and fairly strong hooks, all delivered forcefully with Thomas’ distinctive bravado. It blends the most familiar elements of the two golden eras of album-oriented rock, finding a balance that is comfortable for mainstream fans of either side. All of this resulted in a record that is much more straightforward than most alt-rock albums, even if it follows the pattern of a classic ’90s album – not just in its production dynamics, but down to the acoustic-based slow number that closes the record. Matchbox Twenty functioned much the same way, picking up at Pearl Jam’s fascination for album rock, but deciding to stick to the classic blueprint instead of personalizing it. Lead singer/songwriter Rob Thomas adopted some of Eddie Vedder’s vocal mannerisms, but they were smoothed out, lacking the angst and pain that were Vedder’s hallmark. Yourself or Someone Like You turned out to be the standard-bearer for post-alternative rock because it has a ’90s sheen in its production, but, for all the world, its core sounds like classic rock.
EXILE ON MAINSTREAM MATCHBOX TWENTY RAR DOWNLOAD
Studio Master, Official Digital Download | Artwork: Front cover Matchbox Twenty – Yourself Or Someone Like You (1996/2012) įLAC (tracks) 24-bit/96 kHz | Time – 59:27 minutes | 1,35 GB
EXILE ON MAINSTREAM MATCHBOX TWENTY RAR FULL
“The Matchbox Twenty Collection” is the full band’s discography released as digital box set in 2013. They were a little more classicist than modern, but that’s the reason why they became America’s most popular rock band of the late ’90s – even if nobody quite realized they had achieved that status.
Matchbox Twenty was omnipresent because they managed to blend the structure and sentiment of ’70s arena rock with ’90s hard rock, thereby winning a large audience by seeming simultaneously classicist and modern.
At no time did the record top the charts, but it was always around, a staple of modern rock, adult alternative, and Top 40 radio alike. Upon the release of their debut album, “Yourself or Someone Like You”, in fall 1996, Matchbox Twenty was pigeonholed as one of the legions of post-grunge guitar bands that roamed the American pop scene in the middle of that decade. Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Atlantic Recording Corporation Matchbox Twenty – The Matchbox Twenty Collection (2013)įLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1-96 kHz | Time – 04:58:15 minutes | 4,6 GB | Genre: Alternative