More Than You Think You Are

Barnes & Noble

Their follow-up to 2000's Mad Season, More than You Think You Are was produced by Matchbox Twenty's longtime studio collaborator, Matt Serletic, and features the hit single "Disease." According to Grammy-winning frontman Rob Thomas, "This is probably the most rockin' record we've ever done.... But at the same time, there's a warmness to the record, a real organic quality that I just love."

Barnes & Noble

Since their 1996 debut, Yourself or Someone Like You, which went on to multi-platinum status -- matchbox twenty have achieved a rare popularity that's endured a storm of teen-pop and rap-metal with their dependable, if somewhat staid, brand of emotive rock 'n' roll. So kudos to Rob Thomas and company for challenging themselves on their third disc, on which they discard some of the pop sheen of 2000's Mad Season -- or, more accurately, emphasize the good-natured rootsiness that's underscored their less-heard tracks all along. More Than You Think You Are isn't a radical departure from the ghosts of matchbox past, but -- as evidenced by the stuttering disco-rock rhythms that burble through "Disease," the disc's single, which features Mick Jagger -- the quintet are venturing out from the middle of the road a little more often. "Bright Lights" is a stately bit of southern soul that, thanks to its sinuous piano line, recalls mid-period Black Crowes. The album as a whole affirms the band's shared southern culture more strongly than previous efforts, particularly in the gospel tinges that creep into the melody of "Downfall" and the steel-guitar lines that vein "Hand Me Down." Thomas still has a tendency to leap in at melodrama's deep end, particularly on "Soul," but his heated declarations are tempered, for the most part, by cleverly constructed acoustic melodies and rich-but-rustic arrangements. With each successive album, matchbox twenty declares there's indeed more to their music than chart numbers alone might reveal. David Sprague

All Music Guide

The best proof that Matchbox Twenty is not the Rob Thomas project? Their third album, More Than You Think You Are. If this was simply the work of Thomas, this album would likely be more like their very fine second album, a savvy mainstream pop record that casually displayed his songwriting skills and was casually eclectic. This? This sounds like the effort of a band who not only wants to rock again, but feels compelled to rock again, to prove that they are indeed a band. Perhaps this would have worked if they had either a strong set of songs or a sinewy, persuasive production. They have neither. The songs lack hooks, as if melody would be too commercial, while the production has its sights on the radio, resulting in tuneless songs that are polished for mainstream consumption. It's a weird miscalculation, a regression to the faceless post-alternative rock of their debut. It's a shame, really -- as the years since Yourself or Someone Like You have proven, no matter how disparaged they were in 1996, they did this post-alternative mainstream rock thing better than many bands, because they didn't hesitate to embrace the mainstream. Here, they try for credibility and lose the very things that proved their strengths in the past. [A Special Version of the CD was also released.] Stephen Thomas Erlewine