Advanced Search >
Help Me Search

Music

All-Time High (And Low) Scores
Best of 2009
Best of 2008
Best of 2007
Best of 2006
Best of 2005
Best of 2004
Best of 2003
Best of 2002
Best of 2001
Best of 2000
Best of the Decade

Upcoming &
Recent Releases

sort by namesort by score

75 2562
54 30 Seconds to Mars
62 50 Cent
71 AC/DC
70 The Album Leaf
52 Kris Allen
68 Tori Amos
66 Animal Collective
84 Animal Collective
77 Annie
57 Apse
63 Asobi Seksu
59 Bad Lieutenant
83 Julianna Barwick
82 Beach House
72 Beak>
72 Bibio
65 Justin Bieber
76 Biffy Clyro
74 Blakroc
75 Mary J. Blige
78 Blockhead
52 Bon Jovi
54 Susan Boyle
57 The Bravery
39 Chris Brown
64 V.V. Brown
70 Basia Bulat
79 Chew Lips
74 Citay
65 Clipse
66 Cold War Kids
75 The Cribs
58 Dashboard Confessional
81 Dave Rawlings Machine
70 Delphic
78 The Doors
58 Echo & The Bunnymen
73 Edan
59 Editors
69 Eels
80 Felt
74 First Aid Kit
69 Flyleaf
83 Four Tet
82 Ben Frost
82 Fucked Up
83 Charlotte Gainsbourg
63 The Gilded Palace Of Sin
68 Githead
65 Joe Goddard
58 Good Shoes
72 Gucci Mane
75 Holopaw
82 Jesca Hoop
79 Hot Chip
72 The Hot Rats
88 Ray Wylie Hubbard
54 Hurricane Chris
66 Allison Iraheta
59 Jay Sean
82 Freedy Johnston
57 Nick Jonas And The Administration
73 Norah Jones
49 Juvenile
58 Ke$ha
62 R. Kelly
66 Alicia Keys
68 Kid Sister
81 King Midas Sound
63 Lady Antebellum
76 Lady GaGa
71 Adam Lambert
78 Lawrence Arabia
61 Leona Lewis
74 Lightspeed Champion
36 Lil Wayne
82 Lindstrom & Christabelle
77 Lissie
78 Los Campesinos!
70 Lostprophets
73 Magnetic Fields
72 Massive Attack
64 John Mayer
71 Paul McCartney
58 Katherine McPhee
86 Memory Tapes
72 Midlake
88 Motion City Soundtrack
63 Mr. Hudson
53 Mudvayne
75 Oh No Ono
70 OK Go
72 Ola Podrida
61 OneRepublic
80 Owen Pallett
80 Pantha du Prince
90 Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
80 Phantogram
60 Pit Er Pat
63 Priestess
70 Radian
79 Corinne Bailey Rae
54 Rakim
79 Real Estate
77 Retribution Gospel Choir
76 Rihanna
64 Rjd2
65 Omar Rodriguez-Lopez
77 Sade
77 Gil Scott-Heron
72 Shakira
82 Shining
61 Snoop Dogg
62 Snow Patrol
71 The Soft Pack
80 Spoon
64 Ringo Starr
59 Stereophonics
76 Angie Stone
79 Surfer Blood
74 Switchfoot
75 Them Crooked Vultures
74 Robin Thicke
50 Timbaland
79 tUnE-YaRDs
80 Vampire Weekend
79 Laura Veirs
79 Tom Waits
78 Wale
65 The Watson Twins
66 Kanye West
76 The Whitefield Brothers
64 Robbie Williams
80 Yeasayer
62 Young Money
75 Neil Young
61 Rob Zombie

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed albums.

Mad Season

EMAILPRINTby Matchbox Twenty

Matchbox Twenty reviews
57
8.8 User Score:

Mixed or average reviews

Based on 14 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

Based on 25 votes
Read user comments
Rate this album >

Album Info

Label: Atlantic

Release Date: 23 May 2000

Discs: 1 disc

Genre(s): Rock, Alternative, Pop

Summary

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

80

All Music Guide

The record boasts a huge, smooth production and is considerably more varied and accomplished than its predecessor.

Read Full Review >
70

Billboard

On "Mad Season" the band serves up another slick collection of R.E.M. and Pearl Jam-influenced post-grunge classic rock tailor-made for ubiquitous radio play.

Read Full Review >
70

Spin

Each song isn't particularly interesting or life-changing, but, damn, if every one of them doesn't boast a hook that sticks in your head until you're humming "We Wish You A Merry Christmas" just to exorcise it. For better or worse, this is talented songwriting...

Read Full Review >
68

Wall of Sound

Matchbox Twenty never claimed to be original or challenging or anything more than a lightweight and entertaining pop band. Which is why Mad Season, with its rather casual and jammy feel, is so surprising, so substantial, and much more satisfying than expected.

Read Full Review >
60

Village Voice

What lots of people loved about "Push" isn't much in evidence here, but neither is what lots of people hated about it.

Read Full Review >
60

Sonicnet

A relatively bloodless album, a work that seems formatted to satisfy the demands of the marketplace without really transcending them.

Read Full Review >
60

Checkout.com

The band's edge has dulled considerably, in spite of guitarists Kyle Cook and Adam Gaynor's best efforts on "Angry" and "Mad Season," but for the most part they're heavily sedated throughout, as are bassist Brian Yale and drummer Paul Doucette, begging the question: Where's the band?

60

Q Magazine

The follow-up is an equally passionate, turbulent affair, sounding, oddly, like a cross between Foreigner and the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Read Full Review >
58

Entertainment Weekly

Especially in its ballad-heavy second half, mad season feels like the rock equivalent of a chick flick.

Read Full Review >
50

Rolling Stone

Every song on Mad Season is a production mini-epic.... Under the haywire production are crafty songs.... But when the crescendos surge and the keyboards chime, he starts to sound as unctuous as 1970s cheeseballs from Lobo to Jim Croce to the Guess Who's Burton Cummings. Songs that probably seemed vulnerable as demos have turned greedily narcissistic.

Read Full Review >
40

The Onion (A.V. Club)

"Last Beautiful Girl"... would be good enough to inspire a wholesale reassessment of Matchbox Twenty if the material surrounding it weren't so average.

Read Full Review >
40

CDNow

There's nothing lasting or substantive about the 12 tracks (plus one hidden one) that make up Mad Season.

Read Full Review >
30

New Musical Express (NME)

Musically this is the sound of middle America at its most ugly and nauseating...

Read Full Review >
30

MTV.com

This new album... sees them mutating into less of a rock outfit and more of what is commonly called "adult contemporary" -- in other words, music for soccer moms and rich yuppies to play really loud in their BMWs-

Read Full Review >

What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this album is 8.8 (out of 10) based on 25 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Curefreak gave it an8:
I like the ballads and the mid-tempo stuff but the rockers sound overly processed and over produced and don't really "rock" Rest Stop is probably my favorite song and is probably the most personal.

Jarred T. gave it a9:
I often find myself listening to this album. I've always been a bigger fan of slow sad songs, and that's where this album truly delivers. I just wish there were more of those songs on this album. It males me wonder why so many people continually put down these guys.

kerry m gave it an8:
hmmm if i had listened to critics i would never have bothered, now i am set on discovering matchbox 20 for the great band that they are. Man they get a bad rap from so many people and i just dont understand it!! this album is great.

Nic gave it a9:
The best album of Matchbox Twenty...much better than Yourself of Someone Like You and More than You Think You Are..other critics are so wrong this time

Monique W gave it a5:
I love MB20 and Rob Thomas. Yourself of Someone Like You and More than You Think You Are are fantastic works of art. Unfortuntately, Mad Season is not on par with these albums. On Matchbox twenty's second effort, they lose the charm that makes them so appealing. WIth orchestras and extra noise for no reason, this album is overproduced and hard to listen to. Rob's beautiful voice and lyrical artistry are lost in the cacophony. I'm glad the boys came back from this to make a good solid album with More than You Think You Are. I hope Rob's solo debut will stay in the vein of these gems.

paul gave it a9:
one of the only albums in which i love almost every song!

Zach S gave it a7:
The production on this album is absolutely gorgeous. Big step in the right direction: in fact, they could have gone even farther with the orchesta and relied less on guitars. Unfortunately, the songwriting is only so-so. There's only so many ways for Rob Thomas to lament lost love, and this record goes over by about ten songs.

Read more user comments >

Popular on CBS sites: College Signing Day | Olympics | Lost | iPhone | Cell Phones | Video Game Reviews | Free Music

About CBS Interactive | Jobs | Advertise

© 2010 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. | Privacy Policy (UPDATED) | Terms of Use