...Something to Be

by

Rob Thomas

Edit

Rob Thomas of Matchbox Twenty fame proves himself a winner in his own right with his first album on Melisma/Atlantic records in a DualDisc format. Rob's voice is strong, masculine, propulsive and dynamic-yet beautiful and even vulnerable sounding at times. Some have already written that this CD is an uneven set of tracks without a solid base or theme-but they are wrong. This album rocks! Rob successfully experiments with several types of musical arrangements and themes about love and general inner peace and happiness on this album. The experiment succeeds and leaves you with a collection of catchy songs that you'll want to listen to over and over again! When I first heard it I was extremely impressed with how well the album held my attention and how strong Rob's voice was. Although Rob has been quoted as saying this is a CD full of songs in the styles of "latin/funk/soul/blues," the combination and the way the songs are arranged is extremely pleasing to the ear and not at all out of control as one writer implied.

The CD starts off strong with "This Is How A Heart Breaks." The song has a catchy beat with an excellent musical arrangement. Rob displays REAL emotion while this song rocks! The title track, "Something To Be," starts with an eclectic musical intro-good guitar! Here Rob sings about a man who is looking for "something to be"-a song of pain and the natural need for machismo-not to mention the general human need to feel important. "Streetcorner Symphony" has an excellent guitar intro as well. This song has a certain feeling not unlike some songs The Grateful Dead performed-very soulful and at the same time very positive. This is a song that's full of hope for overall inner peace, harmony with others and an exciting love.

Then of course there's the hit song "Lonely No More." "Lonely No More" is only the second song ever on the Adult Top 40 chart to boast over 1,000 plays in a single week. As of this writing "Lonely No More" had already reached #1 in Canada as well as hitting the No 2 spot in the U.S. this week at Adult Top 40/Hot AC. The song also hit #13 at CHR/Pop-and all this before the CD was even released! WOW!

The CD ends with "Now Comest The Night." It has a beautiful piano intro, and this is a beautiful love song which ends the CD side of the album in a very touching way.

Note that this is a relatively new type of product which is called a "DualDisc" CD. Once you listen to the songs on one side of the disc, you turn it over to see some DVD footage! There's some great footage and one highlight is definitely the behind the scenes documentary by filmmaker Gillian Grisman entitled "In Session." This shows the recording and songwriting sessions for the CD. You even get a photo gallery and lyrics! A nice plus.

In my opinion, Rob's work is enhanced even further by his teaming up with other artists on this CD. Look for Wendy Melvoin from Prince & the Revolution; she's on board as a steel guitarist here. Some of Dr. Dre's band show up (I'll let you find out who!) and John Mayer helps out on guitar. Mike Campbell (Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers) performs here, too. There are several people performing background vocals on this CD including Dan Tyminski, Harley Allen, Matt Serletic, Matt Beck, Great Anointing and Pat Enright. The arrangements are smart and very well thought out; there's even a shofar-a Jewish musical instrument, played by Frank London! Very eclectic, imaginative, and bold.

All in all, you can't go wrong with this solo debut from Rob Thomas. The CD is an impressive first solo effort and if this is a sign of things to come, I can only wonder how much longer we have to wait for the NEXT Thomas CD!

I bought this CD because i love the single "Lonely No More"...and the the rest of the CD seems to be really good.

i gave this CD 3 stars because I bought the CD to listen to in my car...which is brand new and has a top of the line CD player, however, the format of this CD will not play in my car. I tried it both ways, and it wouldnt work at all. Tried burning a copy of it, and it would not burn. Finally, i ripped the tracks with iTunes in super high quality and burned the mp3s to CD. That's just WAY too much work for a CD to play in the car. Whosever idea it was to create an audio cd in this format needs to think again. It's horrible to pay money for a CD that wont play in ALL CD players. So...dont buy this album unless you have multiple CD players.