Dave Matthews Band - "Stand Up" Review

The Dave Matthews Band has finally released their first album of new material since Everyday. To many DMB fans the release of Everyday was the apocalypse, "Why do they hate us!? Why is Glenn Ballard the devil!? Crucify him!” etc. After three perfect albums they weren’t allowed to make any mistakes. The shock was understandable but a few years later the general consensus of that album has gone from “the ultimate blasphemy” to “pretty good”. There are still a few obvious low points on Everyday (Mother Father, I Did It) but not nearly as many as there used to be, for most people at least.
Everyday was a weak departure and Busted Stuff's production was stale and lifeless, so most fans as of last fall were expecting the band to try and re-create Before These Crowded Streets or something of a similar nature. Even I was expecting the band to try and win back former and waning fans by playing it safe, going with the proven formula. They seem to feel as if taking risks in their respective creative field is the only way to keep things fresh and progressive. I can understand that and can at least respect them in that regard...whether it actually works or not, or whether people like it or not. It’s what the band has done and finds necessary to carry on.
This new album delivers, by far, the slickest package to date and attempts to capture a certain playfulness the band has only previously hinted at. Encapsulated by the heavy-handed production of Mark Batson this desired to break free into a new realm is very apparent throughout this entire album...apparently crappy. What Batson manages to do is add generic pop/hip hop flare to nearly everything even if it doesn't deserve or need it, like they're trying to trick us into having fun...it's got a beat, dance! We don't actually have any songs written but why not lay some assorted, improvised parts over this phat beat.
Overall it comes across like a 90 year old man trying to get jiggy with it on the dance floor at his grand daughter's wedding reception. And that be the problem, ya can't expect the old man ta dance...and you can't expect even a great producer to be able to do anything with mediocre songwriting. Sorry Dave.

Dream girl - This is a cute-little-light-and-fluffy tune with a precious guitar riff. Enjoy those first ten seconds because they're the best part of the album. What I want is a whole album of just Dave doing his best "Peter Gabriel sings the Lion King Soundtrack". I’m sure the teenybopper fans who flock to Tinley Park will eat this up. 5.5/10

Stand Up - 70’s Funk-o-crap-o-riffic, nice groove on this one...Carter is good at drums but not even he can carry this song which gets old after about a minute. Dear Dave, Styx wants the verse to “Come Sail Away” back. 6.5/10

American Baby Intro - Nice, but too short. A sort of "collage" starting off with a slow piano piece that goes into the sounds of gunfire followed by a piano based, upbeat portion. The transition from jam to quiet again is a little strange though and doesn't quite work. The song starts to get interesting but then goes right back into the quiet piano piece without any real transition. It’s supposed to give the image of depressing wartime Bush attrocities but the editing of the two pieces together is too awkward. 7/10

American Baby - Ok, not DMB’s worst single ever...and sadly one of the better songs on the album. The section at the end is fun. 7.5/10

Smooth Rider - A very simple, beat driven, bluesey song, not much to it. It Doesn't really go anywhere and doesn't have time to. You pretty much forget that it exists right after it's over. 3/10

Old Dirt Hill - Phat beat, yo. I like when he sings about riding his bike. "Can't catch me, can't catch me". I picture a kid running out of a short bus wearing a helmet. Like a lot of the songs on this album it has potential for about a minute and then gets really repetitive. 5.9/10

Everybody Wake Up - One of the more "classic dmb" sounding songs on Stand Up it starts out with a Before These Crowded Streets-ish stings intro that unfortunately leads into one of the many generic drum beats that Carter decided to use for this album. 6.7/10

Out of My Hands - It's dark and it's got piano, it's like a Tori Amos d-side. 6/10

Hello Again - This is the most structurally sound and well written song on the album, and is the only one that fans can peg as the "classic dmb" we all know and love...except for the pointless abrupt ending (When the World Ends just wasn't enough! They came back for more!) Good song though. Almost too good to be on this album. 8.5/10

Louisiana Bayou - "Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet emoooooooooo-shuuuuuuun" Raffi goes country and then rips off Aerosmith while impersonating Arrested Development. It's good live if that makes any difference. 8/10

Stolen Away on 55th and 3rd - The only comfortable song on the album, Stolen Away manages not to scream "trying to hard" and rests on it's simple smooth jazz arrangement to get the point across. The “less is more” philosophy is prominent throughout this album, mostly to unnavail, but here the band actually succeeds in simplicity...which they're too impatient to carry out in full. 8/10

You Might Die Trying - I’m still not quite sure what this is. It’s a heavy combo of rock and hip hop sort of in the vein of “The Stone“ and "Too High". Not bad, bug not great. It's a song that would be awesome in bizarro world. 6.9/10

Steady as We Go - I guess Smooth Rider needed some competition for the worst song ever. Dave channels 1973 drugged up Elton John and asks him to write a song for the band. Bad lyrics, no emotion, but at least it ends. Good work, Dave. You wrote a song for the piano. 1/10

Hunger for the Great Light - Pretty rockin‘, but generic as sin. I hated it the first time I heard it and I still hate it. The mix leaves everything to be desired. It needs to be dialed up to 11. It needs three bases and a truckload of "oomph". If it were loud it would at least drown out the bad songwriting. 3.9/10

Problems with the album - Much of this album suffers from sub-par lyrics. There’s basically nothing that’s lyrically catchy anywhere on the album. Besides the obvious lyrics there won’t be a lot of crowd sing-alongs with this one, which might be a good thing. Another problem, but one that’s unavoidable is the decline of Dave’s voice, which has been getting worse over the past couple years. Though he can’t control how good his voice feels he could still put some more emotion into his performances which are pretty mediocre on this album. And the final problem that pretty much kills this album is the repetitious nature of most of the songs and lack of musical flow. A lot of these songs desperately need an interlude, breakdown, bridge...something.
The song order and structure is also a problem. To me this record almost comes across as a failed or abandoned attempt at a concept album. There are little bits of string arrangements which create a common thread of sorts and there are sound effects and lyrical themes but when trying to create a concept album of any kind you have to go all or nothing, otherwise it creates a jumbled mess leaving the overall "message" incomplete. It's possible a "concept" never crossed their minds, sure, there's still a failure to weave a coherent and appealing musical pattern into the list of songs.

Stand Up - 6 out of 10 bomb's of love.
Busted Stuff - 7.5
Everyday - 7.7
Before These Crowded Streets - 10
Crash - 8.5
Under The Table and Dreaming - 9