Atlantic
Alternative Rock, 2000

Rob Thomas is a gifted storyteller. He has created some of the best moody lyrics I’ve ever read, and his take on broken relationships are sometimes devastatingly right on and heartbreaking. Bent, If You’re Gone, and Bed of Lies, for instance, are beautiful stories of heartbreak couched in some of the finest lines ever. Elegant, unsentimental, and romantic.

It’s just too bad all the songs on Mad Season seem to lack a hook or even any distinct hook that can leave any impact in my memory. What happened, guys? At least in their debut, tunes like Real World and Back 2 Good are beautiful songs. In this follow-up, the guys of Matchbox Twenty seem content to tell stories minus the good tunes.

Maybe they should all go into poetry or writing depressing novels.