href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00006696R/electronicfro-20"
title="Purchase Supports the Electronic Frontier Foundation">Busted
Stuff
I'm pretty sure I've liked every Dave Matthews song I've ever heard,
which makes it strange that this is only the second of their CDs that
I've bought. Considering that DMB (which is what all the cool people call them)
releases about a dozen CDs per year (give or take the difference between
a dozen and the actual number), it's even more amazing that I've avoided
them this long. I've finally traced the reason for this back to a
psychologically scarring event in my childhood. Back then, all of my
music purchases were from either Columbia House or BMG. In one of my
bulk purchases, I ordered Crush, because I'd always liked the
song, "What Would You Say." Yes, of course, you know that song
is actually on Under the Table and Dreaming, but, at the time, I
didn't. It didn't matter how good the CD was, I was still disappointed.
And I had held that against DMB all these years.
Well, for shame on me. Busted Stuff is a good album. And it
has a story, which makes any CD better. It seems that DMB made an album
several years ago that was never released. That, of course, didn't keep
it from making the rounds on the Internet. Busted Stuff contains
new versions of many of those songs. I've never heard the old versions
-- supposedly, they're darker and, according to some, better than the new
versions. I wouldn't worry too much about that if I were you. The new
versions are very, very good. I don't believe your life will be any
worse for having never heard the old ones.
I love DMB's sound. It's almost hypnotic. You can let it play in
the background and just enjoy the calm melody, or listen closely, and
hear some really interesting lyrics. I'd never noticed before how much
jazz there is in their music. Listen to "Kit Kat Jam," or a karaoke
version of "Busted Stuff," and you'd swear this was a jazz album.
You'll also be alone at all of your parties, because you insist on
bringing out the karaoke machine every time.
Article comments
1 - paul
I'm so glad "Blogcritics" exists. It rounds up every single hack blahg writer and confines them all in one space which I can easily avoid.
Seriously, if Dave Matthews read a review that actually used the phrase "yummy DMB goodness" to describe his latest album, he'd puke faster than I did.