It’s all rock to me.

Writers of the music mags back in the day did their best to give Matchbox 20 a more “current” or “hip” genre.

Modern Rock, Alternative Rock, Traditional Rock, Post Grunge and Grunge Rock are a few that come to mind today. I would even say hard rock as well, as structurally some of the songs have Cinderella and Tesla vibes. These two bands got lumped into glam rock and glam metal, but goddamn they had so much variation on their albums with each subsequent release.

Everyone knows Rob Thomas.

But the rest of the band, while they didn’t write any of the songs, performed and added their own uniqueness to the songs. That is Kyle Cook on lead guitar, Adam Gaynor on rhythm guitar, Brian Yale on bass and Paul Doucette on drums.

And man, didn’t people get behind em on this one. In Australia, it went 10x Platinum. In New Zealand, it went 5x Platinum. In Canada it’s 8x Platinum. In the U.S, its certified Diamond for 10 million in sales and at the moment its sitting at 12 million.

Production is done by Matt Serletic.

“Real World”

A John Cougar Mellencamp/Bryan Adams chord progression and guitar lead starts the song off.

I wish the real world would just stop hassling me

Sometimes I just need to get away and block the noise. It’s my own fault as I used to have a problem saying “no” to people. I’m a lot better at saying no these days, but sometimes it’s back to the old ways.

“Long Day”

What an intro?

The voice, an infectious vocal melody and an acoustic guitar. Then the rest of the band crashes in, as the melody continues.

And the Chorus.

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

The guitar solos are little melodic interludes instead of the usual (towards the late 80’s/early 90’s) “play a million notes per second”.

“3AM”

We used to cover this song when we played 3 sets.

The first set was all originals, then the second set was 60’s/70’s and 80’s and the last set covered the 90’s, along with tracks like “If You Could Only See” from Tonic.

She’s got a little bit of something,
God, it’s better than nothing

Sometimes nothing is better than something because when you have something to lose, you are not free.

“Push”

It was a hit but it never resonated with me.

“Girl Like That”

If AC/DC used acoustic guitars, it would sound like this. If you don’t believe me, listen to the rhythm guitars.

But I roll with the changes is all
I’m same old trailer trash in new shoes

I rolled with the changes in the musical landscape that the labels wanted us to go with, back when they had control of the distribution. But I was always the hard rocker that grew up in the 80s.

“Back 2 Good”

The Chorus is excellent.

And I would like to know, how do we get things back to good?

Relationships are hard and when words are said in a breakup, the disconnect gets wider and resentment seeps in.

Then it’s done.

And the second half of the album is okay.

I remember “Kody”, about a person using alcohol to numb themselves. But the album was sold because of the tracks mentioned.