Busted Stuff - Page 3

(I haven't been subjected to as many live Dave Matthews tracks as I have Dead bootlegs, but for the most part, Matthews and his band seem to realize this. When they "jam," the rhythm section mostly plays it straight, or failing that, Matthews keeps time himself (he plays more like a rhythm guitarist anyway). The results are a lot better than the Grateful Dead "jams" I've heard (and the "Kit Kat Jam" on this record is a decent enough tune)-- Matthews runs afoul of a couple of other Grateful Dead Rules ("Songs reaching for Cosmic Significance tend to suck" and "Jam bands don't ROCK"), but this aside is nearly the length of the rest of the review, so I'll shut up now...)

All in all, this is a much better effort than their previous album, and probably better than Before These Crowded Streets as well. The only flaw is that, as noted above, the individual songs don't really jump out at you as songs in their own right. But then, I'm not sure that's really what I'm looking for from the Dave Matthews Band-- realistically, this album is pretty much exactly what I'm looking for from them. If you already like the band, well, you don't need me to tell you to buy this. If you didn't like them before, you won't like them now, so save your money.

(Looking at the fine print in a BlogCritics email, I see that I'm contractually obligated as a wannabe reviewer to note that this album grew out of the famous "Lillywhite Sessions" demos that were circulated on the Internet for a couple of years. As I've never heard those versions of the songs, I can't say anything useful about the comparison, but there's your obligatory review factoid...)

Article Author: Chad Orzel

Visit Chad Orzel's author page — Chad Orzel's Blog