Rock band revitalizes sound for ‘North,’ first full album in 10 years 
Matchbox Twenty hasn’t left the parade — they’re mid-strut, confetti and beads in-hand, rallying around their first freshly recorded album in 10 years.
It’s been 16 years since Matchbox Twenty hit the airwaves with their rock-rooted singles “3 A.M.,” “Push” and “Back 2 Good.” In 2007, the band released a “greatest hits” album, which included seven new tracks like “How Far We’ve Come” and “These Hard Times.”
Now, there’s “North.” Matchbox’s fifth album dropped Tuesday with 12 tracks that skip back and forth between familiar “classic” influences and more charged, born singles.
In the band’s hiatus, front man Rob Thomas strolled through a solo career. There was 2005’s “... Something to Be” and 2009’s “Cradlesong,” which gave us singles “Lonely No More” and “Her Diamonds.”
It grew the rock-branded crooner’s voice. He stands out, and has come out as one of those branded singers — his sound is recognizable. It’s Rob Thomas.
“North’s” first single, “She’s So Mean” packs the punch. It’s the proof of such growth, and in one summer-beginning release, rejuvenated Matchbox’s career.
It’s a tongue-in-cheek take down of the girl you just can’t drop. She’s so gorgeous, so fearless and so mean. The lyrics, a familiar hyperbole, perfectly compliment Thomas’s vocals, guitarist Kyle Cook’s riffs and drummer Paul Doucette’s. “She drinks Bacardi in the morning till it goes to her head / And all you want is just to hold her, but she don’t go for that.”
And the music video, posted July 30, is just as great. Between potent sips of Mason Jar moonshine, smashed guitars and a blazing (literally) drumset, it plays every part of the single.
The album’s track-list opener “Parade” plays to the same beat, but with more rock influences. There’s a steady drum, and Thomas holds to that brand, but the song’s lyrics define its place.
Thomas, now 40 years old, is singing to what can be a message of love or success. It’s full of lines that will stick with listeners and fit their situtions, but it speaks to more in light of the band’s career.
They’re back, after 10 years. “She’s So Mean” has already hit Billboard’s top 10, spouting verses like: “And there’s so much more that you could see if you just stick around / All the streetlight secrets whispering for you to come back out.”
There’s so much more for Matchbox.
“North” does it all — from slowed-down acoustics to the power rock anthem. Half the album speaks to a style first seen in “How Far We’ve Come,” off 2007’s compilation release, while the other half updates the laid back of “Back 2 Good” and the songs that have certified Matchbox as classic.
“Overjoyed” is the update. It doesn’t hold on to the rough undertones of rock in the 1996 releases, but rather plays to an acoustic pop world. “Our Song” follows the path paved by “She’s So Mean.”
“Radio,” sandwiched somewhere in the middle, feels cheesy. It repeats, “We feel it in our hearts for sure” and “We heard it on the radio” with trumpets and strange tempos thrown through the background.
The only song not written at least partially by Thomas, but instead by Cook and Doucette, falls flat as well. “The Way” is too slow, without a hook to pull everything back. It’s not awful, but lost in the list.
The album closes on a more somber note with “Sleeping At The Wheel,” written by Thomas. It’s one of the listing’s best, but in a different way. It lacks the charisma of the album’s first three, and certainly doesn’t bookend. Instead, it closes a beautiful bridge with, “But everything that’s perfect falls away.”
It’s emotional and commonplace for Thomas, but still powerful in its closing.
In a YouTube webisode by the band, Doucette said, “We have the side of us that wants to make the super acoustic Americano record and the side that wants to make the super pop record.”
Thomas added: “We’re a rock band. But that can be really limiting. Everything you do has to fit in that box.”
To compromise, the consensus was for the singles on “North” to follow “Push” and “Back 2 Good” in finding a place on classic rock radio 16 years down the road.