Matchbox Twenty reinvents sound, lineup

cnn ^ | October 9 ,2007 | AP

[RDTF]

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- Rob Thomas sat down at a computer and typed out a message.

Matchbox Twenty singer Rob Thomas says the band had to work out its personal and musical issues.

It was a missive to fans about the release of Matchbox Twenty's first single in five years. He told them about a few changes in the band. He told them about their new greatest hits-with-a-twist album. And he told them what so many fans had waited to hear -- he was happy to be back, making music again with his friends.

And then he signed off: "Death to Matchbox. Long Live Matchbox."

With the release of "Exile In Mainstream," a greatest hits album that features six new songs, it is a rather curious statement.

But listen a little to the new tracks and something becomes very clear: This is not the Matchbox Twenty of old. First, the music is different, gyrating from rock to folk and back again. Then there's the new lineup for the band, which dropped one band member and then had another drop the drums for the guitar. And finally, the band members say, there was the biggest change of all -- a new work ethic, a team approach to writing music.

"I tell people that it's a new band, a new Matchbox," Thomas told The Associated Press recently.

What happened to the old band is nothing new: A group of friends start a band, struggle together, become successful together and then fall apart. But it's what happened between the old and new incarnations of Matchbox Twenty that is, perhaps, something new in the story of music.

-snip-

[RDTF]

Glad to see them back. IMO Rob Thomas is a fantastic lyricist - hoping this team writing approach still has his strong influence