Dave Matthews Band Matures on 6th Studio Album With Mellow, Introspective Rock

Dave Matthews Band
Busted Stuff

But don't forget to have a drink and live it up while you're young.

That's what Dave Matthews would want you to do, or such is the general idea behind Busted Stuff. Dave Matthews Band's sixth full-length studio album, it is a more-than-welcome follow-up to the forced-sounding Everyday.

Busted Stuff, without a doubt, sounds more heartfelt. The new songs' melodies lack the complexity that made for instant success on older albums like Under the Table and Dreaming and Crash.

Yet it seems that the band has fully matured into a more mellow, pensive stage of songwriting.

On the new songs, the wowing solos and sing-songy refrains of earlier days are replaced by more instrumental cohesion and introspection in the lyrics.

Most of the songs aren't the type to invoke dancing and table-drumming right away, though -- no doubt a potential downer, especially for the most nostalgic of fans.

Perhaps the only exception to this rule is the radio-ready "Grey Street," an upbeat, bittersweet track that leaked onto the Internet from the band's unreleased Lillywhite Sessions months ago and is already popular among fans. The rest of the songs aren't as catchy and follow the band's new trend.

This new blend of light-heartedness with subdued harmonies hits the mark on "You Never Know," easily the best track on the album. It's such a standout because the instruments are just prominent enough to support Matthews' angelic vocals well without overpowering them.

On this particular song, the life-and-death philosophy that has characterized Matthews' lyrics of late intermingles strikingly with an irregular yet controlled beat.

Almost as beautiful, the melancholy but uplifting "Grace is Gone" will quickly grow on anyone who has ever drowned his sorrows in alcohol before regrouping.

And on "Bartender," Leroi Moore intensifies his saxophone playing to carry Matthews' weighty lyrics and Carter Beauford's standout drumming, bringing the album to a strong close.

What brings the album down are the songs on which Dave and the crew weren't able to hit this clockwork target. "Digging a Ditch" drags on, and the instruments awkwardly accompany Dave's too-mellow vocals instead of combining with them smoothly.

And "Kit Kat Jam," upbeat as it is, doesn't go well with the album's general mood. Instead, it sounds like a Before These Crowded Streets leftover or a perfunctory jam session.

No, it isn't the Dave Matthews Band's best work.

But every band has to grow up, and these acoustic-rock jammers are showing maturity by settling into a more comfortable new phase that shouldn't be written off as a decaffeinated version of what once was.

The Arts & Entertainment Editor can be reached at artsdesk@unc.edu.