Matchbox Twenty: More Than You Think You Are : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Practically every radio-rock band that's not rap metal or punk sounds like a louder version of Matchbox Twenty. So it's to be expected that the real thing would crank up its guitars. Surprisingly, Rob Thomas and cohorts have managed to improve upon and diversify their familiar blend of classic rock and alterna-rock lite on More Than You Think You Are. Having proved on their last album -- 2000's quadruple-platinum Mad Season -- that their monster 1996 debut, Yourself or Someone Like You, wasn't a fluke, the quintet no longer comes across desperately commercial or deadly earnest. Cowritten by Mick Jagger, the discorock romp "Disease" evokes vintage INXS, while more typical tracks such as "Soul" possess a finesse that the band's previous power ballads lacked. Matchbox Twenty now seem almost dignified, a fact that is as much a tribute to their advancing abilities as it is to how shamelessly their sellout successors suck.