Striking Matches
A long long time ago I was a much younger Bozz. My second car was a (matchhead) red four door 92 Chevrolet Cavalier. Looking back now, it was an ugly thing, but that car took me a lot of places. Apparently sedans weren't that popular back then because all the photos I can find online are of coups.
Around the same time, I was attending university and working for a little electronics retailer named Radio Shack. One of the perks for working at Radio Shack was the 25% discount we got on all Radio Shack branded stuff. While true audiophiles would have likely scoffed at the Realistic and Optimus audio components, what they did or didn't know was that many of those items were built by the larger manufacturers like Pioneer and then simply rebranded after meeting Radio Shacks specifications.
At least that's what they always told us...
Anyway, I remember at some point they had a 10 disc CD changer that was getting discontinued because a newer model was coming out. Along with my 25% discount I was able to grab the changer at a pretty amazing price. I then spent the better part of a Friday afternoon mounting the changer in the trunk of my Cavalier and running the wires to the front so I could enjoy some music.
It's pretty crazy how far we have come since then isn't it?
You might think that installing the ten disc changer was the hardest part of the process, but that wouldn't be true. If memory serves me correctly, the install actually went pretty well all things considered. The truly hard part of the whole thing was deciding which ten discs were going to be blessed with a spot in the changer.
Since you had to run back to the trunk anytime you wanted to swap a disc, it was important to make sure you got it right. There were a fair number of CDs that I rotated in and out of my changer when the mood felt right, but there were also a couple of CDs that earned a permanent place in the changer.
For my #threetunetuesday post sponsored by @ablaze, I am going to be talking about one of those CDs.
Are you ready? Go ahead and press play...
This was the song that started it all. I can still remember when "Push" by Matchbox 20 came on the radio. It was their debut single and buried in the countless other grunge stuff that was coming out at the time, it really stood out to me. Let's call it "lite grunge". It was soft yet gritty, driving, yet melodic, it was just something really special and I knew right away I had to buy the album.
Although I specifically bought the CD for the song "Push", I wasn't prepared for the fact that the whole album was going to be so amazing. Personally, I think Yourself or Someone Like You is one of those rare cases where a handful of songs come together to form the perfect album. There just isn't a single bad song on this thing. If you have never listened to the whole thing all the way through, I really encourage you to do so.
Don't believe me? Maybe the fact that the album went 12x platinum will be enough to convince you...
The thing with this album is there is a lot of directions you can go. Sure, I could have picked some of the other big hits like 3 AM or Back 2 Good. In fact, I was just at a campground this past weekend and for some reason the guy next to us thought it would be fun to set up a guitar, amp, and microphone to play a show for... I honestly don't know who. Thankfully he wrapped things up before it got too late and he did have a decent voice, but 3 AM was one of the songs he sang.
"Hang" was a bit of a sleeper song for me, but as I listened to the album more and more, I started to realize just how amazing it was. It was actually kind of hard to find a version of it on YouTube that wasn't a Karaoke version if that tells you anything. So here you go, take a listen to it.
Matchbox 20 was formed in 1995 in Orlando Florida. While their second album Mad Season didn't see the acclaim that their first album did, that doesn't mean you shouldn't listen to their other stuff. It's good, but like many artists, it's hard to capture lighting in a bottle twice. As I said before. Yourself or Someone Like You is just so amazing from front to back.
It has the driving rocky songs that you are familiar with, but it also has some of the softer driving ballads like "Hang" and more specifically "Shame". "Shame" was one of my instant favorites after listening through the album the first time.
It's just a really great song and I wanted to share it with you here today.
I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. Do yourself a favor and listen to the full album all the way through. If you still have a 10 disc changer, maybe throw it in for a spell!
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That brought back a lot of memories. I also remember when CD changers in the trunk felt like the height of music tech, and you really did have to think hard about which discs to load in. Matchbox 20 was a great choice though. I agree with you about Yourself or Someone Like You being one of those rare albums where every track is solid. It’s funny how some records stay with you for decades, not just as music but as part of your own story.
Yeah, people don't really realize how easy they have it these days! All the music in the world right at your fingertips!
A trip down memory lane!! Some albums are like time capsules, they transport you back to exactly how you felt, who you were with and even the little details of that moment.🤗
Yes indeed, that is very true! Those albums are the best!
They’re timeless classics that never get old.💕
This took me on a nice trip down memory lane! Being able to load those 6 and 10 disc changers with the best songs was the whole reason I learned how to burn my own CDs.
Yes, that brought a totally different dimension to things didn't it?! I remember I had a really aggressive mix that had stuff like Limp Bizkit and Disturbed all rolled together.