Happy Half Asian

dmb

Many of you know that my favorite band of all time is the Dave Matthews Band. I think this love comes from a mix of the jam band sound that I truly love, and because I love to play the acoustic guitar. DMB just recently released their newest studio release since Busted Stuff. Being the Dave fan that I am I did what I needed to do to assure that I would have the 15 dollars I would need to pick it up on the release date. They released the cd in two formats...you could get the straight cd or get the dual disc cd, which of course is the one I went for. I was dissapointed that they released it out in dual disc format and not in a double disc one cd and one dvd package like they usually do. The fact that the dual disc is the cd on one side and a dvd on the other poses the storage problem. I usally keep my dave collection all in a binder, organized by studio albums and then live albums and then dvds with each category in its chronological order. I am really not that organized, I just put a lot of time into organizing a few certain things. Anyways, once the storage problem was figured out I finaly got to listen to the cd. My favorite DMB cd is Before These Crowded Streets...I feel this was the most daring and "out there" album that they released. They really hit on a sound on that album that no one had really tampered with. This new cd is very much different from what most people are used to hearing when listening to Dave; there is a much stronger drum line in all of the songs, and Dave has very few songs that are driven by the guitar. Overall I like this cd. I think it is really going to refresh the bands sound, and introduce a new style of Dave that we have not yet heard. However I do feel that the lyrics on a few of these songs sounded very forced for Dave. I strongly believe that Dave Matthews is one of the best lyrical writers on the music scene. The reason I say I feel like he forced some of the writing is because the flow seems to be off, and you hear a lot of the same lines repeated throughout the cd in different songs. You also hear lines that are very similar to those Dave would improvise in songs such as Jimi Thing on the live cd's. I would recomend this cd to anyone who is familiar with dave, or likes that style of music. Using Before These Crowded Streets as my comparison I would give Stand Up a seven. I like the mix of the band members personal styles from jazz, to folk, to rock. I think it displays how talented this band remains, to be able to mix so many different styles into one single song. I think Dave fans will overall enjoy this new album, but it may take a few listenings to, to really get a feel for what they are doing.

posted by Eric @ 5:53 PM