Matchbox Twenty, a band that has been around us for so long and we have liked having them around from the 1990s all the way into the present day.

They’ve released five studio albums, and no Matchbox Twenty album has dropped below No. 3 in Australia with three of them hitting No. 1 and the compilation album ‘Exile on Mainstream’ was also a No. 1 hit.

Here is a unbelievable stat, only two Matchbox Twenty songs have been in the Top 10 in Australia, and they are ‘Push’ and ‘How Far We’ve Come’.

How Far We’ve Come

The meaning of this song is looking back on humanity as a disaster is about to end the world.

I got to say at the time (2007) of the song, the world was doing pretty good and now in 2025 we seem to have become a nasty bunch of people to each other, and I am not talking about one President, it is a problem right through humanity, we’ve become meaner, dangerous, uncaring, xenophobic bunch of people, ready with the boot instead of an outstretched hand.

The music video makes you think about how humanity has done over time; we’ve become nicer in some ways and worse in others.

This end of the world song makes the end of the world sound really cool with the way it is performed especially towards the end when Rob Thomas sings ‘Let’s see how far we’ve come’.

‘How Far We’ve Come’ peaked at No. 7 in Australia, their best result in twenty-nine years of releasing music which is no indication of how good or bad they are as their albums have been at the pointy end of the charts.

Real World

We’ve all dreamed of living a different life than the one we have now, maybe dreaming of a job or a better job, wealth, fame, romance, having children maybe the outlandish like being Superman.

It has been a great song to listen to from 1998, surprisingly it only peaked at No. 40 in Australia and No. 38 in America though the Pop Airplay chart in America had it at No. 4 so it got heavy usages on the airwaves.

Push

This song was widely thought to be about a man pushing a woman around, but it is actually emotional confrontation and female-on-male mental harm as it is not sung from the male perspective.

We should not want to or do push people around mentally, manipulating them into situations, take everything from them, making them feel hopeless and/or worthless.

‘Bright Lights’ got to No. 23 and No. 26 in America and Australia in 2003, the song came from their hit 2002 album ‘More Than You Think You Are’.

This song is something that many can find relatable, a person going out into the big world seeking fame and fortune and being encouraged to go back home if things don’t go great for them.

I like how the song gradually picks up in intensity, starts softly and starts picking up in volume, Rob Thomas sings louder, the instruments get louder, the drums in particular stand out in the song before the guitars take over.

The Music Video is from their hit DVD ‘Show: A Night in the Life of Matchbox Twenty’ which was released in 2004, it got a lot of play at my house in late 2004, I think it is still in my collection of music videos.

Life was sweet for Rob Thomas when wrote this song, his band was a success, he met his future wife, but he wondered if the success of the band would be too crazy to build a relationship at the same time

In the end ‘If You’re Gone’ was a hit and the relationship kept on going and going, the perfect outcome.

It is one of those pleasant enjoyable songs, it peaked at No. 5 in America and No. 18 in Australia; to be fair 2000 was more a pop music year in Australia than music from bands though those years were coming to an end.