DAVE MATTHEWS BAND / Crash (1996)

While a few of these songs are too abrasive to be pleasing to my ear, or are disagreeable to me lyrically, a healthy majority find them switching effortlessly between languid, beautiful exhalations and their patently infectious ADHD-hiccuping. The cover art is, consequently, particularly apropos. It’s also worth noting that although many of these tracks are on the lengthy side they never fall entirely into self-indulgent noodle-ing for its own sake. Here, DMB are quite adept at being concise while still not overtly limiting themselves.

Songs of Note: Two Step; #41

3 Voraciously Satiated Appetites out of 5

DAVE MATTHEWS BAND / Everyday (2001)

Near the turn of the millennium, DMB scrapped a safer, more generic album’s worth of material in favor of this release and their fanbase essentially revolted, pressuring them into eventually releasing that more-of-the-same drivel. This is far leaner and funkier. More rewarding. There’s a perverse brazenness to the grooves and lyrics that even managed to attract the Wachowski's attention. There is a dollop of hippie pap right at the end but it doesn’t dilute the sincere questioning and lamentation that the well-tread subject matter defining their collective agenda is afforded across the disc. Indeed, this has always been a consistently surprising and engaging experience for me.

Songs of Note: If I Had It All; Mother Father

4 Exotically Percolating Realizations out of 5