Matchbox Twenty

Poor Rob Thomas. He wanted to be taken so seriously as a talented rock lyricist when Matchbox's first album came out, but he's pretty much killed all chance of it with the critics with that damned Santana song "Smooth." Now comes the second offering from Thomas and company, Mad Season, and it's not that much of a departure from their debut. It's your straight-ahead radio-friendly modern American rock with no alarms and few surprises. Lead-off single "Bent" is a tasty track that showcases their ability to sound pretty rough and raw electrically. But the rest is more rootsy, down-home and filled with some smatterings of soul. Think Counting Crows, but without the poetic melancholiness.

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