It's about time I STAND UP!

Dave Matthews Band. Okay I said it, you can stop reading.

The newest album is freaking weird! And I really like it.

I think Dave has gotten weary of working really hard on a crap-load of lyrics. On odd-ball song structures. I think, at this point in his life, he's more excited by the energy of playing music with his family (the band). Of grooving, jamming. The result, is music that's easy to make. And, from a first consideration, that seems bad. Under the Table and Dreaming had many strange and wonderful lines in it. Almost like John Lennon playing with words--making graceful nonsense. There was a careful structure and progression to the album. From start to finish, the art was beautiful. Before These Crowded Streets was a film in sound. And the songs had so many lyrics to them! The Stone had like eight verses! Dreaming Tree only had two verses but they were long! These were works of intense self-searching. Of thoughts that had been stewed over many years. Not so with Stand Up (said newest album). This is pop, as applied to DMB. Loops, few lyrics, often one verse. In interviews Dave said they would create a song a day, or better. This album was about having a blast. But I think that is the soul of good pop.

And still there is some good flow in the middle of the album. Everybody Wake Up leads into Out of My Hands (which does indeed have an unusual structure, and is possibly my favorite in the album), and then follows with Hello Again which leads right into Louisiana Bayou (another contender for my favorite). That four song progression is fantastic! And it's the closest to their old feel, which makes me feel good. Even with all they have gone through--all the changes we've witnessed (after Everyday and Busted Stuff, all bets were off), there is a through-line. The band does have a nut of DMB-ness in it's core. I guess I wasn't so sure! I was ready to accept this album for what it was, but I was expecting something very foreign to me.

So, with this cautious view, I was glad to learn I was falling for the album. I can't go a few days without hearing even the "radio friendly" songs like Dreamgirl and Old Dirt Hill. That song is hip-hop. Summer time. I really love it. And my parents like it! And my DMB-hating friends (who call me a dirty hippy. With friends like these...) like it! Truly now, all bets are off.

The one downside to this, is that with the virtues of good pop, so go the vices. Basically, the songs are going to self-destruct, and I won't be able to pick the album up again for about two years. Like that Smashmouth song All Star. I loved that song! And then I heard it a few thousand times and now I am done forever. And One Week by Bare Naked Ladies. That was on the radio the other day, and I found I still new all the words, and even liked the sound, after all this time. But I'm good again until 2010. That's how pop works.

So, as good as the album is, and as fine a form as the band displays, I'm already reaching for my next CD purchase (Jeff Buckley's Grace--thought I'd give that one a listen, I don't know much about him.), which had been put off when Stand Up arrived in the mail. Stand Up will stay in rotation for a good long while I think. But I miss the days of Crash staying in my CD player for months. Reading along with the lyrics, and noting the flute trills, the hi-hat fills, the base line distills. (I needed the rhyme, what do you want from me?) The work you can return to ad infinitum, and keep pulling out new bits of genius (or distilling those bits--see?). That's the shit. That's the man. We look to the horizon for that. Joltin' Joe has left and gone away.

Oh! And the B-sides are amazing! I adore Trouble With You! It's so beautiful!