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Now. _Everyday_. What's the deal?

My apprehension was confirmed. I listened to I Did It online, like everyone else, and thought "What a lousy song." They sounded like a guitar rock band. They still do. _Everyday_ is a disappointing, commercial album. Not that DMB weren't commercial, but this album shows a shift towards the -conventional-. They sound like a wussier version of some faceless guitar rock band (Big Wreck, Matchbox 20), with the occasional saxophone squawk. The album feels soft, flat, homogenous. It in no way parallels the dense, Lillywhite production that I adored on BTCS. The finest moments on the disc (Everyday, The Space Between) are during those lilting seconds where the instruments still fill the sounds, fill the emotions, and those individual layers are audible (eg: the chorus on Space Between). I am uninterested in hearing a male vocalist singing good (but not terrific) lyrics, with uninteresting electric guitars and drums. Boyd's violin sounds like the contribution of a session musician who was hanging around. Thanks Rick.

Muh. If you've heard I Did It, the album doesn't sound like that. It sounds like a muffled version of that. At one point in Fool To Think (if memory serves), a Hammond organ chimes in. Rather than sounding like a groovy, slidin' and welcome addition (as I feel it does on old Wallflower tunes, for instance - although I do not praise the Wallflowers, usually), it merely sounds boring. It's hardly even notable, recognizable. It contributes -nothing- to the song, adds no heart.

Ballard produced Aerosmith? It shows. This is an album without personality, an album that has lost its heart. Some of the songs are -really nice-, but they just sound... off.

DMB has a different sound, and the change is a step towards Adult Contemporary, not towards Maturity. Buy it, if you're a fan, but prepare to be disappointed. *sigh* Back to my Gomez albums.


It Hurts Me To My Very Soul   March 2, 2001
 47 out of 70 found this review helpful

It hurts me to say every word of this, but the new Dave Matthews Band album is a complete let down. As a dedicated fan since 1994, it hurts me in so many ways to write here that this album should not be purchased, let alone listened to.

I looked forward to this band's next release with great anticipation for well over a year. With every little piece of information that leaked out about the up-coming release of a new DMB album in 2000 I grew more excited. However, the more time it took to create the album and the more times its release date was pushed back, the more doubtful I became. But then I found taped material from the summer tour last year and caught them live toward the end of their tour. The new material was fantastic and listening to its progress from shows at the beginning of the tour to the very last show proved how well they developed their new material. I was hyped and excited about what they could then do with it in the studio.

But when they scraped the entire work they had done with producer Steve Lillywhite and the studio recordings from Virginia and decided to head out to Los Angeles to work with Glen Ballard, I began to worry. And now, several months later, after having listened to "Everyday" several times, I know for sure that my worries were, in fact, grounded. "Everyday" is terrible. All of the songs are written by Dave Matthews alone and were written over the course of 12 days; they definitely feel that way. None of the songs grab me in a way that would cause me to wear out the CD like all of their previous releases have. The lyrics are uninspired and the music feels completely rushed with no feeling in them. "When The World Ends" and "Everyday" are the only decent tracks, but still pale in comparison to all of their other work. These two tracks are both ended much too soon, but can possibly be salvaged in concert. The rest of the CD isn't worth mentioning.

In just the few days that I've owned it, I can no longer bring myself to listen to "Everyday." Not when I know that there are studio recordings in the world of such great new songs as "Grey Street," "Grace Is Gone," "Bartender," "Sweet Up And Down," "Busted Stuff," "Raven," "Digging A Ditch," and "JTR."

"Everyday" is the Dave Matthews Band equivalent to Van Halen's "III;" it just shouldn't exist, because they are capable of so much more.


DMB's done it ... and gone too far   February 28, 2001
 46 out of 57 found this review helpful

It's strange that Dave Matthews Band's newest studio release is titled Everyday. After all, the word "everyday" carries a sense of normality and routine. But with new producer Glen Ballard behind the board, the band's new album is not your "everyday" DMB record. Dumping longtime producer Steve Lillywhite for Ballard (best known for his biggest contribution to pop music: Alanis Morrisette's Jagged Little Pill), Everyday has turned into a product belonging only to Matthews and Ballard. After the the two wrote 12 songs together in L.A., they invited the rest of the band to record them. In an "everyday" DMB recording session, Matthews would usually play a few licks on the guitar and the remaining four would gradually join in to create the full sound. But when bassist Stefan Lessard, violinist Boyd Tinsley, sax player Leroi Moore and drummer Carter Beauford arrived in Los Angeles, Ballard had charted out the songs on paper for each musician to follow during the recording process, thus eliminating the creative process and input that the entire quintet had produced in the band's previous three studio albums. The result is a collection of songs that fail to capture the essence of Dave Matthews Band - an essence that usually features an album of performances, not routine recording sessions. The album totally changes DMB's change of pace, evident by its 50 minute-51 second duration (compared to the previous three records that lasted well over an hour). All the songs are short, limiting band members to minimal musical expression. Also, the songs contain the influence of Ballard's rock/pop feel throughout. Gone are the fun grooves as the rhythms of Beauford (arguably the best drummer in the business) are limited to rock and pop. Gone are the constant melodic riffs that underlie a typical DMB track as bassist Lessard is reduced to following typical rock progressions. But most notably absent are the talents of Moore and Tinsley, who's saxophone and violin, respectively, are featured at a minimum on Everyday. The album's first single, "I Did It," opens the CD with a funky rock feel and a rocking guitar lick. Noticeable throughout the record is the replacement of Matthews' constant acoustic six-string companion with an electric baritone guitar introduced to him by Ballard. "When the World Ends" possesses a funky pop feel - a rather bright groove mixed with dark lyrics. The song draws striking similarities to Morrisette's (and Ballard's) "You Learn." "So Right" is another song with a rock/pop feel to it, but suffers lyrically with cliches of love. It is also one of two songs on the CD that features the talents of sax player Moore in a rare solo. "If I Had it All," on the other hand, contains much more lyrical content as the bridge features Matthews expressing his current state of emptiness in convincing fashion. "Angel" is a sweet love song that opens with a nice, but short-lived duet between Matthews and Moore. "Fool To Think" is an interesting track. The song's main lick sounds a lot like the Police's "Message In a Bottle," again showing the influence musicians like Stewart Copeland, Andy Summers and Sting have had on DMB. The song again showcases Moore in a short sax solo. "Sleep to Dream Her" is Matthews' poetic victory on the album. It is also one of the most involved songs for the entire band, showing off the abilities of every member. The verses, however, are heavily dominated by the keyboard playing of Ballard. Nevertheless, this rock ballad is one of the best songs on Everyday. Grammy award-winning guitarist Santana is featured on the Spanish-inluenced rock song "Mother Father." Finally, the title track "Everyday" sounds a bit like "Stay" (from Before These Crowded Streets), containing a rock/pop groove and unusually spiritual and uplifting lyrics. Matthews pays a personal tribute to John Lennon and The Beatles with the lyric: "... All you need is/What you want is/All you need is love ..." Surprisingly, the band followed Ballard's lead with anxiety and optimism. All five members, especially Matthews, feel Everyday is the best album they have recorded in their decade-long history. However, it will probably be a little difficult for hard core DMB fans to embrace the band's change. Fans welcome change in a band that has been around as long as DMB, but changes that move the band forward are more desirable. With Everyday, it appears the quintet has taken a minor step back. Again, Everyday is a very strange title for this album that has left four members of this legendary band in the dark in order to make room for Ballard. A little too ironic, don't you think?


Not for the gluttons   February 15, 2001
 35 out of 47 found this review helpful

"Why do I beg like a child for your candy?" a sweet-toothed Dave Matthews asks on "Angel," a light, reggae-influenced tune whose jovial feel is a rarity on the band's fourth studio album. That type of lyrical artistry hasn't exactly garnered Mr. Matthews much acclaim among music enthusiasts (add it to a stream of ever-clever, not-so-subtle sexual innuendoes ranging from "Open wide/Oh so good I'll eat you" to "Hike up your skirt a little more/Show your world to me"). Ignoring the pedantic critic, Dave and his four Charlottesville, Virginia hombres have achieved mass popularity through their unmatched brand of groove-oriented jams and invigorating live shows.

Unfortunately, the quintet's sense of musical homogeneity, fueled by the jocular instrumental interplay of saxophone, violin, bass, drums and acoustic guitar, is absent on Everyday. The album is vocally driven, relying less on the musical pulse that powered the band's past efforts. This reliance on front-end vocals places Matthews' songwriting inadequacies on center stage, nearly sabotaging Carlos Santana's guest guitar work on the morose cultural sewage of "Mother Father" and bogging down "When The World Ends" with his love-sick gibberish.

Even with Matthews' occasional raspy intrusions, Everyday has its fair share of beautiful moments, from the surreal euphoria of the single, "The Space Between," to the instrumental interplay and smooth melodies of "Fool To Think," to the album's mellow title track. This form of musical cohesion is a rare commodity on Everyday. Leroi Moore's typically standout horn work is reduced to a supplementary status while Boyd Tinsley's crazed fiddling is hidden beneath the over-the-top production efforts of Glen Ballard (Aerosmith, Alanis Morrisette), whose craftsmanship is too calculated for a band whose true expertise lies in avant-garde transitions and climactic breakdowns.

In stark contrast to its heavily criticized predecessor Before These Crowded Streets' seven and eight minute epics, no track on Everyday exceeds five minutes, and nearly half clock in under four.

Perhaps the most prominent change in sound results from the band's decision to fully utilize electric riffs for the first time on a studio album, eliminating the subtle intimacy of hush chords which drove ballads like "Crash Into Me" and "Lover Lay Down" and provided the framework for upbeat harmonies on "Lie In Our Graves" and "Jimi Thing."

The distracting Middle Eastern influence and vocal distortion of "What You Are" is reminiscent of Ballard's mediocre work on Morrisette's Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie, while the airy, sonic landscape of "Sleep To Dream Her" falters in the shadow of "Satellite." On other songs ("So Right," and the first single "I Did It"), the band's sacrifice of free-flowing vibes for Ballard's tight, limiting production proves worthwhile, resulting in an admittedly fresh, professional sound unrealized on the group's past three efforts with long-time producer Steve Lillywhite (who they abandoned during early recording sessions last summer).

Everyday is different. But that doesn't make it inherently bad. Unfortunately, many of the band's querulous fans aren't as open-minded and will readily denounce that dogma, as their insatiable appetites for genetic clones of "Ants Marching" grow ever hungrier. Oh, the gluttony.