MUSIC REVIEWS: Matchbox Twenty, Animal Collective

North

Matchbox Twenty

Atlantic

★★★

Matchbox Twenty used to rule the radio. The band was the king of the FM dial, responsible for some of the country’s biggest hits — “3 a.m.,” “Bent, “Unwell” and others — between 1996 and 2004. Then, after doing more than any other band to shape the sound of mainstream pop/rock at the start of the millennium, the group quietly disappeared.

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Album cover for Animal Collective Domino “Cenitpede HZ” more >

“North,” the first release by Matchbox Twenty in 10 years, desperately wants to be the band’s big comeback album. Like the three records that came before it, it’s pretty and poppy, with a track list that splits its time between tasteful ballads and midtempo rockers. Given the right push, many of these songs could rule the radio, too.

For the most part, “North” sounds like classic Matchbox Twenty. A lot of mileage is left in that sound — in the way Rob Thomas wrings every syllable out of every word, in the way his melodies are echoed by Kyle Cook’s guitar riffs, in the way a song like “Parade” seems to evoke U2 or Toad the Wet Sprocket — and the guys don’t sound dated when they stay in that comfort zone.

Problems arise whenever the guys take a stab at modern trends, though. “Put Your Hands Up” is exactly what it sounds like — an invitation to raise your limbs and shake your moneymaker — but the throbbing disco beat that runs beneath the song is more reminiscent of Maroon 5 than Matchbox Twenty. You listen to Matchbox Twenty for the hooks, not the dance beats.

“She’s So Mean” splits the difference between the two camps, grafting a contemporary groove onto an old-school Matchbox Twenty melody. It’s a compromise, a truce between the band’s need to evolve and its audience’s preference for more familiar-sounding tunes. To be fair, a band like Matchbox Twenty deserves the right to grow, to change, to push the envelope, but the guys sound best on this comeback album when they look backward, not ahead.

Centipede Hz

Animal Collective

Domino

★★★

“Merriweather Post Pavilion” made Animal Collective famous. Released in 2009, it was a gorgeous album, weird enough to please the band’s indie fans and melodic enough to attract a pop audience, too. It even cracked the Billboard Top 20, peaking at No. 13 alongside records by Mariah Carey and Britney Spears.

Never the kind of band to repeat itself, Animal Collective steers “Centipede Hz” in a different direction. The album’s melodies, which were layered into thick, Beach Boys-influenced harmonies on “Merriweather,” are now sung by individual members. The songs, which were once cobbled together from electronic loops, are played by real instruments.

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