Perhaps it’s unfair, but when a band has been around for almost a decade and a half, put out top-selling albums and topped the touring charts nearly every year, fans and critics come to expect a certain amount of greatness.
Producer Mark Batson (Eminem, 50 Cent) did for the Dave Matthews Band’s latest release, Stand Up, what Glen Ballard did in 2001 with Everyday— cut down the band’s characterizing jams into 4-minute pop ballads. And in trimming down the songs, the impressive solos by saxophonist LeRoi Moore and violinist Boyd Tinsley were sacrificed.
This time around, the band is at its instrumental and creative peak with Moore all over the disc. Drummer Carter Beauford unfortunately tones down his always impressive but sometimes busy drumwork to add some layered percussion and allow bassist Stefan Lessard to shine through with thumping bass lines.
With the exception of the disc’s first single, “American Baby,” no song on the album has a traditional Dave Matthews Band feel to it. While this may upset the more adamant followers, casual fans will learn to love the groovin’ jams — even if they are devoid of the complexity and lyrical brilliance that categorized the band’s earlier efforts, such as 1998’s Before These Crowded Streets.
But it is impressive to see a band that has been around for so many years get up and change its style without hesitation. The group has proven time and again that it can top both the pop charts and hold onto its hardcore fans without sacrificing quality, and Stand Up is no exception.
Arguably the most creative album the band has put out to date, the disc is bound to make a splash on the Billboard charts. But that same creativity put into making an entirely fresh sounding Dave Matthews Band was left out of Matthews’ lyrics. Normally complex choruses are sometimes replaced with simplistic vocal repetition of the song titles. There is also a lack of emotion in his vocals that, surprisingly, fits the album’s mood in most places.
The disc’s highlights include the ballad, “Stolen Away on 55th & 3rd,” an anti war protest called “Everybody Wake Up” and the following track titled “Out of My Hands.” Matthews shows off his piano chops on this disc on “Steady As We Go,” making an impressive debut on the keys.
While Stand Up will inevitably land just above Everyday at the bottom of the band’s best album list, the tracks all have potential to shine far brighter in a live setting than they do on the disc. The album does makes good on its promise — you will stand up and dance.
