Song: "Unwell"Artist: Matchbox Twenty
Album: More Than You Think You Are
Year: 2003
Highest Billboard Hot 100 Chart Position: #5
Players: Rob Thomas - singer, songwriter; Kyle Cook - banjo, lead guitar; Brian Yale - bass; Adam Gaynor - rhythm guitar; Matt Serletic - producer
Matchbox Twenty bores me, usually. I liked "Bent" but other than that "Unwell" is the only song that does anything for me. So I'm not even going to pretend like I know anything about them and just direct you to their Wikipedia page. Rob Thomas solo, though? That's some hot shit right there! "Lonely No More" is danceable fun, the breakdown at the end of "This Is How A Heart Breaks" is incredible. But it's "Unwell" that I am attached to, for personal reasons...
It was in 2003 that I assisted the teachers for a class called "Family To Family" for family members of those diagnosed with mental illness. It's produced by a great group, The National Alliance on Mental Illness. I have close family members who deal with Bi-Polar Disorder, so I had taken the class a year or so prior. It's a great class, if you have a loved one with a mental illness you really should check into it.
During that class, one of the mothers of a young man mentioned the song "Unwell" and that her son had said that it exactly express how he felt. It was a moment of clarity for me as I went over the lyrics, and the chorus is what stays with me: "I'm not crazy, I'm just a little unwell. I know, right now you can't tell, but stay a while and maybe then you'll see a different part of me." It's a strong statement, one that encompasses the ideas that we relayed in the Family To Family classes. Those we love are unwell, they need us to stick by them and we'll see the real them again.
I don't think that's what Rob Thomas had in mind when he wrote the song, it's more about the fact we are all "fucked up and feel alone." But the song took on a different life for me, and I think that's what music is all about.
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