Matchbox Twenty. Despised by many, loved by… equally as many. Criticized for their "pop"-ish sound and style, they hit it big upon their debut, Yourself or Someone Like You, in 1996, and took four years to deliver their highly anticipated second album in 2000 while lead singer (and songwriter) Rob Thomas scored a major hit with Carlos Santana in the song "Smooth."

But "Smooth" isn't on this album, and, as should be expected, nothing grooves as well, either. BUT… grooves were never the boys at Matchbox's strongpoint. The focus is, was, and always will be on Rob Thomas and his lyrics. While the first album was mostly the standard drum-bass-guitar-vocals setup, MBT took a different path the second time around. Mad Season is a more pop-oriented album, putting the guitars farther back in the mix and letting orchestrations create an atmosphere for the songs.

The "rockin'" songs here don't rock terribly hard, and throwing "Angry," possibly the worst song here, as the first track is a terrible misstep. Nothing wrong with the song itself, but it's a terrible opener and doesn't make much of an impact. "Black and White People," the song that follows it, is much better. Very bright-sounding, horns and everything. Next comes "Crutch," a scathing message to Thomas', Gaynor's and Doucette's former bandmates of their "Tabitha's Secret" days (who had released TS material against Rob's will). Punchy, somewhat catchy, sometimes border-lining annoying (Those "Yeah, yeah"'s can get on one's nerves pretty easily).

But it's with "Last Beautiful Girl," the first ballad, that the album truly begins the shine. A bittersweet (leaning more on the "bitter" than "sweet") "breakup, goodbye, F U!" song that beats the hell out of any "breakup" song Fred Durst could even dream of creating. And it gets even more beautifully sweet with "If You're Gone," the hit second single off Mad Season, and a subtle, atmospheric song for longing. Love the verses. And "Rest Stop," best song here, is another breakup song. And it works. Hard-hitting, simple, easy to figure out and somewhat sad all rolled into one. "And she said 'while you were sleeping, well I was listening to the radio and wondering what you're thinking when it came to mind that I didn't care.'" Nice chorus, too.

"The Burn" is another hit (in the "it's a good song" sense, not the "chart-topping single" sense), and a decent follow up to the three preceding songs. And the first single, "Bent," is a slight step up, but still not up to par with the triumvirate that came before "The Burn." And the last truly great song on this CD is "Bed of Lies." An almost overdone, epic and piano-driven ballad, it deserved the label of "beautiful" more than any Matchbox Twenty song before it.

So, the peak of the album has passed, and it's time for everything to wind down. "Leave" and "Stop" and fairly generic. Nothing that makes me beg to hit the "skip" button, but nothing that I'd go pimping out to other people who want to get into this band. Finally, "You Won't Be Mine" is a closing piano ballad that doesn't really do anything. Worked better in the setting of their VH1 "Storytellers." There's also a bonus instrumental track (and I hate those… hate, hate, hate, hate, hate them… make the silence and the music separate tracks… Angie Aparo's "The American" had the right idea).

So, in the end, Mad Season isn't anything monumental. A nice follow up to their (superior) debut album, and an extremely well done pop album. Complete with filler! Buy today!