NEW YORK, NY. (Top40 Charts/ Atlantic Records) - "EXILE ON MAINSTREAM," the much-anticipated new album from Melisma/Atlantic recording group MATCHBOX TWENTY, is set for release next Tuesday, October 2nd. A look back and a look ahead, "EXILE ON MAINSTREAM" combines a six-track EP of new songs, produced by Grammy winner Steve Lillywhite, with a retrospective of the band's greatest hits culled from their previous three albums. The album is closing in on the top of iTunes' album pre-order list, ranking at No 2.
The album's first single, the Lillywhite-produced "How Far We've Come," is already shooting up the Hot AC chart, where it is No 5 with-a-bullet this week, as well as quickly climbing the Triple-A and CHR/Top 40 charts. The track's companion video is in Gung Ho! rotation on VH1, where it is the channel's most-played video. The song is also No 1 in Australia and No 1 on iTunes in Canada.
MATCHBOX TWENTY will herald the album's release with a string of high-profile television appearances, including "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" on October 4th, "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" on October 5th, "Today" on October 8th, and "The Ellen DeGeneres Show," also on the 8th.
Recorded in Los Angeles, the six new songs embody a central change for the band, with all group members writing the songs together at once. This is in contrast to MATCHBOX TWENTY's past three multi-platinum albums, where lead singer Rob Thomas wrote the lion's share of the material, with his bandmates adding their parts later. This time, guitarist Paul Doucette, guitarist Kyle Cook, and bassist Brian Yale were included from the beginning, and the collaborative effort spawned a distinctly new sound on the tracks, which marked the band's first work with Lillywhite.
When not working on the new material, the band selected 11 songs for the greatest hits disc, deciding to present them in chronological order to trace their musical evolution. The result is a rare greatest hits set that really is all greatest hits - every song was a chart-topping single and every one has a companion video. Included are such smashes as "Push," "3 am," "If You're Gone," "Bent," "Real World," "Back 2 Good," "Mad Season," "Disease," "Unwell," and "Bright Lights." Over the past eleven years, MATCHBOX has earned the distinction of having had more No 1 hits and spending more weeks at No 1 on both the national Modern AC and Adult Top 40 charts than any other artist in history.
MATCHBOX TWENTY was named Best New Band in the 1997 Rolling Stone Readers Poll, and they followed the RIAA Diamond Award success of their 1996 breakthrough debut, "YOURSELF OR SOMEONE LIKE YOU," with two more multi-platinum sets - 2000's "MAD SEASON" and 2002's "MORE THAN YOU THINK YOU ARE." Among their many accolades are five Grammy nominations and three American Music Award nominations, while Rob Thomas has earned three Grammy Awards, 11 BMI Awards, and has been twice named Billboard Songwriter of the Year.
When the members of MATCHBOX TWENTY gathered together at Thomas's home studio in New York to begin work on "EXILE ON MAINSTREAM," each brought personal experience and musical growth to the band's first writing sessions since their last album together, 2002's "MORE THAN YOU THINK YOU ARE." Since then, individual members had remained busy, with Thomas releasing the No 1, multi-platinum "...SOMETHING TO BE," Doucette crafting a solo album under the name The Break and Repair Method and scoring a film for Nickelodeon, and Cook releasing a CD via his other project, The New Left. In addition, Doucette had shifted from drummer to guitarist after Adam Gaynor left the band in 2005.
Now, with some 30 million records sold to date, MATCHBOX TWENTY'S decade-long collaboration comes full circle on "EXILE ON MAINSTREAM," celebrating the past and looking ahead to a new beginning for the next generation of fans. Together, the members of MATCHBOX TWENTY are focused on their future, and looking forward to their first tour in four years.
MATCHBOX TWENTY: "EXILE ON MAINSTREAM"
Disc 1/New Songs:
Produced by Steve Lillywhite
1. How Far We've Come
2. I'll Believe You When
3. All Your Reasons
4. These Hard Times
5. If I Fall
6. Can't Let You Go
Disc 2/Greatest Hits:
Produced by Matt Serletic
1. Long Day
2. Push
3. 3 am
4. Real World
5. Back 2 Good
6. Bent
7. If You're Gone
8. Mad Season
9. Disease
10. Unwell
11. Bright Lights
