Most Top 40 listeners should be familiar with Matchbox Twenty’s playlist, after getting their start in Orlando, FL in 1996. Prior to their latest release, Exile on Mainstream, the band has sold over 44 million records worldwide. After a three year hiatus, the band returned with a double album, featuring greatest hits and 7 new tracks. Their tour, also named Exile on Mainstream, started January 25, 2008, with Alanis Morissette and Mute Math. For those that have experienced Matchbox and those that haven’t, here is a list of their best songs (in my opinion).
10. Bed of Lies, Mad Season, 2000
When this album was released, I was dating a guy who drove me to 5 different stores to find this CD. I was preparing to go out of town for something and had to have this album before I left. I didn’t know the cover art, so we actually looked at the CD in all 5 places, but I swore it wasn’t it. Needless to say, I was in love with this guy for driving me around town on our first date. I found the CD the next day and our relationship didn’t work out, but this song became the one I first related to our relationship. The chorus “I will not sleep in this bed of lies/So toss me out and turn in/And there will be no rest for these tired eyes/I’m marking it down to learning” made me think of our short-lived, lie-filled relationship and that at the ripe age of 15, I would grow from the experience. Ah, young love! Rob Thomas’ voice is so smooth, and builds up to the bridge, where you can feel the emotion in the lyrics.
9. Can’t Let You Go, Exile on Mainstream, 2007
The lyrics to this song, on Matchbox’s new album, make me weak in the knees. I don’t think I realized until reading the lyrics why I love it so much. It tells a tale of a couple going through hard times, realizing that the magic may be gone from the relationship, and wondering if they can get it back. My favorite part, after a magical sounding bridge, “If love were a whisper/What would I give you to speak” makes me sigh.
8. Rest Stop, Mad Season, 2000
After the relationship I discussed relating to the #10 song, I got over our little fling and fell in love with this song. A girl discovers she’s done with her relationship and gets up the nerve to wake up her partner and ask him to get out of the car, three miles from a rest stop. The chorus, “I was listening to the radio/And wondering what you were dreaming when/It came to mind that I didn’t care/And I thought – hell if its over/ I had better end it quick,” wrapped up our relationship. I didn’t care about him and it was good it was over, I was glad it ended just as quickly as it started.
7. Long Day, Yourself or Someone Like You, 1996
I didn’t actually get this CD until 2001, when I fell in love with Matchbox after Mad Season and a friend realized I didn’t have their first album. I just like the song. This was also one of their first big hits, and strangely enough, I didn’t really like it on the radio. In the context of the CD it worked for me.
6. I’ll Believe you When, Exile on Mainstream, 2007
I like the sound of this song, very upbeat and visual. You cannot help but learn the lyrics and sing along. I could call you every day/Give presents by the score/And I could send you pretty flowers/Have them waiting at your door” are great Matchbox Twenty lyrics. I probably sing a little too loud when I’m alone in the car, listening to this song.
5. Last Beautiful Girl, Mad Season, 2000
Despite the stories related to the other songs I like from this album, this song I just like. I didn’t equate it with anything in my high school life; it was one of the first songs I fell in love with, by any artist. I was also opening up to more musical styles, spending more time listening to music in my room, in the car, etc. This song made music more than just a bonus, it made me want to listen over and over again and find more music like it.
4. Push, ep, 2003
This song was originally on Yourself or Someone Like You, and when it came out, most thought it was about domestic abuse. There was quite the uproar with the lyrics about someone feeling damaged and abused and the chorus all about pushing someone around. I didn’t like this song until I heard them sing it live on MTV’s Unplugged. The only way to listen to it was on the DVD, until a live version was released on 2003’s ep. The song was not, in fact, based on physical abuse. I loved the way lead singer Rob Thomas seemed to feel the lyrics when it was sung live.
3. Bright Lights, More than You Think You Are, 2002
I was about to graduate high school when this song came out and Matchbox Twenty was coming to my town to play. I told my best friend that I wanted so bad to hear them sing “Bright Lights” because to me, it was about leaving friends and family behind for what I thought were bigger and better things. She got us tickets for my birthday and when they played this song, I cried. Like a baby. It’s a moment I remember so vividly, being there with my best friend, watching my favorite band, coming up on a life-changing time in both our lives. From up in the almost-nose bleeds, I felt like the song was for me.
2. Hand Me Down, More than You Think You Are, 2002
This is my favorite song from this album. I cried during ‘Bright Lights’ but if they would have played this song at the aforementioned concert, there’s a good possibility I may have died right on the spot. If there’s something a high school girl needs, it’s a song about having people trying to change you and someone recognizing what’s going on. Some day they’ll open up your world/Shake it down on a drawing board/Do their best to change you/They still can’t erase you” are lyrics that would make any emotional teenage girl swoon. Still to this day, I play this song and it takes me back to my senior year, and all the roller-coaster emotions I was feeling at the time.
1. Hang, Yourself or Someone Like You, 1996
I mentioned before that I didn’t get this CD until after the 2000 release of Mad Season. I listened to this CD from start to finish and then put this song on repeat in my room and in my car. It was MY song. It’s the kind of song that wraps you up and you sink way down into the lyrics, into the lead singer’s smooth voice, the strumming of the guitar… You simply must look this song up if you haven’t heard it before. I’ve always thought that through all their albums, Matchbox Twenty painted a picture with their lyrics and made a story you could follow and visualize. She grabs her magazines/She packs her things and she goes/She leaves the pictures hanging on the wall/She burns all her notes, and she knows/She’s been here too few years/To feel this old,” are the opening lyrics, creating a portrait of a tired relationship. The song is simple and I believe, overlooked, as one of Matchbox Twenty’s best.
I hope this list has reminded of you of some great Matchbox tunes and I hope maybe you’ve re-discovered a few from a few years back.
