Dave Matthews Band in the Studio

UPDATE uh errr, yeah so the new single "American Baby" I guess it is has been released via AOL. I don't know, it's bad, I mean like 5/10, not horrible, not as bad as Creed or Avril Lavinge but not worthy of anything past a D- grade. I don't know what the deal is, I know it's only one song, but the "sound" of the rest of the album probably won't be much different. So yes, I'm worried. I sure hope they didn't feel like making the sequel to Everyday. Dangit.

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Jan 4 - The Dave Matthews Band is back in the studio and http://www.dmbnewstudioalbum.com/ is now online. The new site features two video segments that show the band in studio, one of which interviews their new producer Mark Batson who has worked with assorted pop acts like Eminem, Beyonce, Maroon 5 and Fitty Cent. Yeah, that sucks, but he has worked with two of my favorites; Seal and Sting. Judging from these previous acts his production is sure to deliver a slick package.
The two video clips have short little snippets of songs that may or may not be on the new album. I have no idea how close those songs were to a finished product, but just basing my opinion off of what I heard, it's really different, yet feels familiar. The best way I can describe it is, it's DMB without the depression. Most of their material has a sad element but these new clips feel lighter, they seem to have a very smooth feel to them. They remind me of much jazzier versions of 'Stay' and 'Crush' with a thicker more driving r&b rhythm. I fully welcome something different from this band, I think Dave and the guys can really take a step up to another level. From what Batson says in the interview, he's really trying to work with each of them to bring out their best and also to help them explore new bounds of their own creativity. This band really does need something fresh, they tried to achieve that with Everyday but I think the reason Everyday was a failure was not because the songs were really that bad, in fact most of them are pretty good. I think it fails because the 'new sound' was actually just a detraction. There was hardly any Boyd or Roi at all, essentially it was a Dave solo record. As long as the whole band is contributing in a solid way, different is ok. I really don't care how different the sound is as long as the songs offer something new.
They really need for this album to be good. I mean really. Everyday and Busted Stuff were fairly uninspiring, the band has almost been MIA since 98's Before These Crowded Streets, they need this new record to remind people why they're good.

Another interesting thing...last year the band was playing four new songs almost every show; Hello Again, Crazy Easy, Sugar Will and Joy Ride, all of which sounded very similar to their old material and most DMB fans were sure they were going to be on the new album. Now we're not so sure, they just don't sound like they could fit in, besides maybe Sugar Will. This should be interesting to see what happens to these songs.