Thomas, Rob—Something to Be

Posted April 23, 2005, 2:13 p.m.

I’ve been a big fan of Matchbox Twenty for years, and I responded to the news that front-man Rob Thomas was making a solo album with both anticipation and trepidation. I was thrilled with the musical direction that Thomas had taken Matchbox Twenty with their most recent album, More Than You Think You Are, but concerned that Thomas might take his solo career in a different direction.

The first single from Something to Be, latin-pop track Lonely No More, was both entirely different than Thomas’s work with Matchbox Twenty and independently excellent (and the music video is worth a look, check it out in the iTunes Music Videos section). The rest of the album largely follows suit—it’s not what you expect, but you like it anyway.

Thomas enlists the help of a diverse cast of backing musicians—Eminem’s bass guitarist, Beyoncé’s drummer, guitarists who have worked with Tom Petty and Sheryl Crow, a gospel choir, and a guest appearance by John Mayer. The result is an album that manages to sound, in places, like a pop/R&B but maintains a rock-and-roll core. To say the least, no other album I’ve ever heard sounds like Something to Be.

If you appreciate the lyrical stylings of Rob Thomas as you’ve experienced them in Matchbox Twenty, but are interested in hearing his words in a new musical context, give this album a try. It’s a great start for Rob Thomas as a soloist, and despite a few weak points Something to Be is worth having in your collection.

4 out of 5 stars.

Scott Bradford has been putting his opinions on his website since 1995—before most people knew what a website was. He has been a professional web developer in the public- and private-sector for over twenty years. He is an independent constitutional conservative who believes in human rights and limited government, and a Catholic Christian whose beliefs are summarized in the Nicene Creed. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Public Administration from George Mason University. He loves Pink Floyd and can play the bass guitar . . . sort-of. He’s a husband, pet lover, amateur radio operator, and classic AMC/Jeep enthusiast.

Quotes

There is much truth in that saying: A man will do little by firing off his gun if he has not learned to take aim.

Only the most cynical, hopeless philosophy insists that reality could be improved through falsification.

Sin has many tools, but a lie is the handle which fits them all.

Every culture agrees, in general terms, that good is to be done and evil avoided.

Count it all joy, my brethren, when you meet various trials, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.

As much as I ever did, more than I ever did, I believe in Liberalism. But there was a rosy time of innocence when I believed in Liberals.

Now we are masters in respect of to act and not to act, to will and not to will.

Socialist governments traditionally do make a financial mess. They always run out of other people’s money.

He who justifies the wicked and he who condemns the righteous are both alike an abomination to the LORD.

Welfare’s purpose should be to eliminate, as far as possible, the need for its own existence.

If you want to build a ship, then don’t drum up men to gather wood, give orders, and divide the work. Rather, teach them to yearn for the far and the endless sea.

No one can have God for his Father, who has not the Church for his mother.

A person can almost be defined by his or her attitude toward gratitude.

As evil men feel their guilt more in the presence of an innocent babe than in the companionship of those who are wicked like themselves, so he who loves God is the most deeply burdened with the sense of his own unworthiness.

There are victories of the soul and spirit. Sometimes, even if you lose, you win.

Compromising is a sure sign of not possessing the truth. When a man yields in matters of ideals, of honor or of faith, that man is without ideals, without honor, and without faith.

The Constitution[‘s] . . . language is ‘we the people;’ not we the white people. Not even we the citizens, not we the privileged class, not we the high, not we the low, but we the people.

Liberty is often a heavy burden on a man. It involves that necessity for perpetual choice which is the kind of labor men have always dreaded.

If tyranny is at all feared, the tyranny of the many is to be guarded against more than that of a single person.

God endowed every human being with freedom, and we are always free to choose unbelief. Such a choice is a sad use of freedom. It’s like a railroad train jumping the tracks in order to be free of them, and then being unable ever to move again.