Matchbox Twenty

 

It's actually Last Beautiful Girl that I put on the playlist but it doesn't matter.

I hadn't realized that my musical preferences were of quite such interest to others until I was questioned at work 'if I still liked Matchbox Twenty', as if it was some sort of offence. All very well, it's a godawful name for a band but their Exile on Mainstream album made no secret of their uncontroversial ambitions which included aspiring to the condition of Fleetwood Mac, but coming from someone still unashamedly devoted to Pink Floyd, it seemed like an unworthy accusation.

Yes, of course. And why on earth not. All you have to be is any good and if The Velvet Underground, the Jesus & Mary Chain, the Fugees, Public Image Limited and Faust were once ground-breaking radicals, one wouldn't have retained an interest in them if the ground they broke wasn't worth breaking. Pink Floyd were over well before Dark Side of the Moon whereas Rob Thomas brought some heartfelt passion to mainstream, AOR, FM, traditional 'soft rock' and I avidly bought up his albums, only having found out about him on the strength of his astute career move of doing the single with Carlos Santana. I entirely believed in the authenticity of his outpourings, not that it matters because art is art and artificial and we accept that Diana Ross, David Bowie, The Beatles and all are dramatizing situations that might be fictional. I was persuaded that Rob Thomas meant it, though.

I don't know whether it's 'cool' or not. I only know whether I like listening to it. 

He looks and sounds like he means it. I've long been impressed by his desperation. Whether that is real or not is neither here nor there. I didn't take them at their word when The Beatles claimed to live in a yellow submarine.

There is more self-examination in the words to Push,

And I'm a little bit angry, well
This ain't over, no, not here
Not while I still need you around
You don't owe me, we might change, yeah
Yeah, we just might feel good

I wanna push you around
Well, I will, well, I will
I wanna push you down
Well, I will, well, I will
I wanna take you for granted

 

than there ever was in UnderMy Thumb, Honky Tonk Women or Some Girls by the legendary, knighted singer of such songs as those.