MatchBox 20 is for “Yourself or Someone Like You”
By D
Note: D is my other half for the Ethnik Kids Project. A fun passion project where we share our favourite songs of the season with anyone who will listen. Here is her nostalgic album choice.
Some albums mark a specific period in your life, but some can transcend eras and remain seemingly forever relevant. For me, one of those “forever” albums is “Yourself or Someone Like You” from Matchbox 20.
I was checking the tracklist online when I stumbled upon the Wikipedia description of the album, which says it [this album]:
“features themes of adolescence, adultery, loneliness, domestic violence, psychological abuse, humiliation, depression, anger, and alcoholism.”
That’s a long list of tough words that yes, without a doubt, are hinted at in the album. But for me, the album always had this pure essence of the ’90s. The 90s where the worst thing you could be was a sellout and the best thing you could be was just you — nothing more and nothing less. Living with an ambivalence to whatever nonsense might be going on around you. This album doesn’t feel like a string of depressing buzzwords for modern therapists but rather an embrace of genuine thoughts from an ordinary person — “yourself or someone like you,” just as the album title suggests.
I’ve had a year filled with too much action (the Chinese proverb “May you live in interesting times” comes to mind). We’re not even four months in yet. In recent weeks, I’ve found myself turning back to this old Matchbox 20 album and still finding great comfort in it. I get flashbacks of listening to this album as a moody pre-teen in my bright blue bedroom, watching the blobs of my lava lamp float up and down endlessly.
Despite all the growth (I certainly hope!) I’ve made over the years, there is something about this album that still hits just the right chords, no matter how much has changed since the first time I listened from track 1 to the end.
As I reflect on this ’90s album that never gets old (at least for me), there are a few tracks that deserve a special mention. Beyond the hit singles that most of us know well (“3AM”, “Push”), the album is full of gems.
“Long Day”
When I’m feeling worn out by whatever life is throwing at me, this track helps me snap out of it and stand a bit straighter. The lead and rhythm guitars wailing away, the strong drum beats driving the music forward, the vocals floating on top — sometimes, it’s just the reminder that I need in my day.
I love belting out the chorus:
Reach down your hand in your pocket
Pull out some hope for me
It’s been a long day, always ain’t that right
“Back 2 Good”
With softer guitars (and a bass clarinet because why not), this song always serves as a reminder that dealing with people is sometimes just downright complicated — for reasons often not clear to us.
The last round of the chorus always gets me. There’s a quiet interlude with backing vocals and a chill guitar riff when the distortion hits the guitar and the vocals start to soar:
Well everyone here, knows everyone here is thinking ‘bout somebody else
And it’s best if we all keep this under our heads, yea well our heads, yeah
[here’s a big crescendo — Rob Thomas is shouting out what no one else will say in the silence]
See I couldn’t tell now if anyone here was feeling the way I do
But it’s over now, and I don’t know how, guess it’s over now [now it goes down, quiet and soft]
There’s no getting back to good
“Kody”
This song was my favorite song on the album for years because I was a moody little pre-teen/teen. What can I say — I was a true child of the ’90s. What always strikes me about this song is not so much the overt reference to alcoholism but the sentiment that we can easily go numb from feeling too much. Like in many pop/rock songs, there is no solution offered — just an acknowledgement for the moment, for that feeling. And some days, this is all we need to hear — a simple reminder that we aren’t unique in this feeling, and a hope that it will pass.
“Hang”
True to many alt rock/grunge albums of this period, the album ends with a slower, quiet number. I always associated this song with ones like “Fast Car” by Tracy Chapman — these lyrical songs with storytelling where you start to build your own film reel of how this tale plays out. When the chorus comes on, I always imagine sitting out on a white veranda, chips in the paint, swaying on a slightly rotting porch swing and singing:
And we always say, it would be good to go away, someday
If it’s the same for you, I’ll just hang
About D:
D currently lives with her family in Copenhagen. She’s moved around Europe and the US a few times and has loved picking up new music, books, and art along the way.
