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Yourself or Someone Like You

Artist: Matchbox Twenty
Genre: Alternative
Year: 1996
Rating: 8 / 10

The debut release by Matchbox Twenty, "Yourself or Someone Like You," is one of the best albums to come out in the last few years. Along with the Dave Matthews Band's Live at Red Rocks, this album helped to make 1997 a memorable music year, after an otherwise rocky beginning. (Technically, Yourself or Someone Like You was released in 1996, but it did not come to national prominence until 1997.)

From the very opening track of the album, "Real World," Matchbox Twenty pulls you into their oh-so-magical world. Fronted by Rob Thomas, a high school dropout from our nation's South, Matchbox Twenty has a sound reminiscent of the Counting Crows, yet they are able to bring their own energy and excitement to the fore.

Radio mainstays "Push" and "3am" drive the album, but it is the lesser-known songs such as "Girl Like That" and the moving "Kody" that truly propel this album to megastar status. Any album that can bring a Southern born-and-bred Nascar-lover and a fanatical Hollywood-loving former headbanger together in agreement is definitely worthy of extended praise. I realized then that Matchbox Twenty has the capability to reach people from all walks of life

Submitted 6/10/98.