Thinking outside the matchbox, ‘Something’ is pure pop

By David Browne
Entertainment Weekly

(Entertainment Weekly) — Rob Thomas: adept craftsman or musical agent of Satan? Sometimes it’s hard to tell.

rob thomas first solo album

With Thomas’ reedy whine at center stage, matchbox twenty embodied rock’s drift into joyless, store-brand monotony by the late ’90s. Every so often, though, Thomas thinks outside the matchbox and makes up for his transgressions.

”Smooth,” his 1999 hot-tamale matchup with Santana, was one such moment of revelation, and ”Lonely No More,” the irresistible initial single from Thomas’ wide-ranging first solo outing, “Something to Be,” is another.

Encircled by DJ beats, warp-speed bass lines, and a ”whoa-oh!” refrain, Thomas sounds less like his usual tortured self and more like a boy-band veteran who still knows a thing or two about a grabby hook. Who knew he could be so pop, so rhythmic, so tolerable?

“Something to Be” doesn’t always snap and crackle the way that single does, but it’s not for lack of trying. Matchbox often strove to prove they had more to offer, but everything — even their cracks at gospel and country — sounded pretty identical. On his own, Thomas works hard to avoid that trap. (He’s become his generation’s Phil Collins — an industry-savvy schmoozer eager to collaborate with others and lighten way up.)

Who would have thought he could concoct a taut, driven track like ”This Is How a Heart Breaks” or graceful, near-Byrdsian gems like ”When the Heartache Ends” and ”Problem Girl”? If matchbox twenty make the musical equivalent of supersize blockbuster movies, the best parts of “Something to Be” are akin to a more intimate indie film. Even Thomas’ lyrics — typically angsty and needy and delivered, as usual, with a suggestion of deep-seated resentment — are less intrusive. What a difference better accompaniment makes.

Alas, the nuance that infuses a good chunk of “Something to Be” eventually gives way to the hammy, overemotive gestures we’ve come to expect from Thomas. The strained funk of ”I Am an Illusion” is painful, as is the football-chant bombast of the look-how-dark-I-can-be title song (in which he lacerates himself for appearing ”a little too boy next door” and feeling he should ”try to find a downtown whore”).

The nadir is ”Streetcorner Symphony,” an embarrassing foray into ’70s FM rock in which he slurps about going ”down to the corner” with ”my sisters and my brothers of every different color.” The song feels like the world’s greatest Black Crowes parody — until you realize Thomas is completely serious.

”Sometimes I’m people I never hoped that I would be,” he sings in ”I Am an Illusion.” Luckily, Thomas also manages, just enough, to be someone a pure-pop fan always hoped he would be, too.

EW Grade: B

Rob Thomas has a funny way of showing his desire to be “Lonely No More.” He’s taking a break from longtime band Matchbox Twenty and setting out on his own with the release of his debut solo album, Something to Be.

something to be

Thomas is no stranger to side projects, having worked with Carlos Santana on the song “Smooth” for 1999′s Supernatural, but this is the first full album the singer has released on his own since Matchbox Twenty dropped its first project in 1996.

While Thomas should have no problem making a solo name for himself, Houston-bred rapper Mike Jones is taking huge leaps to make sure you remember his. Jones titled his album Who Is Mike Jones? and has made his phone number public knowledge to ensure listeners will be able to answer that question on their own. The album drops on the heels of the single “Still Tippin’.”

This week, Matchbox Twenty frontman Rob Thomas reinvents himself away from the band and Anna Nalick’s Wreck of the Day is anything but.

something to be review

Pop/rock: Rob Thomas, Something to Be (* * * out of four) After dispensing highly commercial but colorless rock with Matchbox Twenty in the 1990s, Rob Thomas found his groove in Smooth, the 1999 hit collaboration with Santana. He brings that rhythm method to this lively solo album, a largely enjoyable assortment of pop flavors with a pulse strong enough to travel from the ears to the hips. The title track is overwrought, and Streetcorner Symphony is a painful misfire, but Thomas compensates with the salient When the Heart Aches and first single Lonely No More, dance-pop with a genuine funk core. —Edna Gundersen

New album packed with guests, including John Mayer on guitar.
By Jennifer Vineyard

rob thomas solo but not solo

Taking a break from Matchbox Twenty, Rob Thomas is going the solo route, but that doesn’t mean he’ll be all alone in his endeavor. Like Gwen Stefani before him, Thomas’ got a crew of collaborators to keep him company on … Something to Be — even if the whole point was just to find himself.

“Stepping out solo, the question was, ‘What’s the difference? How is this not just another Matchbox record?’ ” Thomas said. “And that haunted me. It really scared me. But every time you make something new, it’s a chance to discover something new about yourself.”

What Thomas discovered, though, is that he likes working with others, especially if it’s in an unexpected way. John Mayer, for instance, guests on the track “Streetcorner Symphony” — but not as a writer or vocalist.

“John is such a celebrated singer and songwriter that people don’t realize he’s probably one of the best guitar players in popular music today,” Thomas said. “When he heard I was in the studio, he came by to have lunch and talk about music, and he heard this song, and I said, ‘I think you would be great on this song.’ And he said, ‘Oh, I think so too,’ so he just played for us. To not sing but to be John Mayer the guitar player, that was really exciting.”

Thomas made so many tracks to choose from, it was hard to decide which songs ultimately would make the cut for … Something to Be (see “Matchbox Twenty’s Rob Thomas Happy To Be Scared Again As He Records Solo LP”). Some songs, such as “When the Heartache Ends” and “Problem Girl,” he concedes, could easily have found their way onto a Matchbox record, but the point wasn’t to duplicate his band’s sound. He was trying to make this record “super diverse,” but ultimately, the selection was, in some ways, determined by his invited guests.

“I wound up having Mike Campbell [from Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers] playing guitar, and I’m not going to have Mike Campbell playing guitar and then not have it on my record,” he said. “And it was exciting to have Robert Randolph [who plays lap-steel guitar on 'I Am an Illusion'] and [guitarist] Jeff Trott from Sheryl Crow’s band and [bassist] Mike Elizondo from Dr. Dre’s band, and just taking all these people who have no business being on a record together and making some sort of hybrid of something.”

Bringing aboard guitarist Wendy Melvoin (from Prince & the Revolution and Wendy & Lisa), whom Thomas calls “the blood of this record” since she’s on “pretty much every song,” gave him an excuse to get a little funky on a few tracks. “If anyone else played it, I could get in trouble, because it’s so Prince. But you can’t yell at me, because it’s her!” he laughed.

All the grabbing and borrowing from different genres doesn’t mean the album, which comes out Tuesday, is necessarily groundbreaking. Nor would Thomas want it to be.

“Popular music has been around a long time, and the hope of me creating something that’s never been done before, it’s probably not going to happen,” he said. “And it’s probably not going to be very good if I do. But I do believe I succeeded in doing something different for right now. I don’t hear anything on the radio like this right now, and that’s good enough for me.”