Music Review – Dave Matthews Band – Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King

The first track, a haunting saxophone, notifies listeners that what follows will be a tribute to the late LeRoi Moore.  The twelve remaining tracks leave you feeling as if you’ve just attended a wake in New Orleans on Mardi Gras.  How does that feel?  Well, happy, reflective, sad and weird; throw in some disappointment and some raucous dancing and you have Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King.

The opinions of early reviewers have been scattered.  Some have mandated this album be added to the “Big 3.”  Others have thought it a continuation of DMB’s recording mediocrity since 1998′s Before These Crowded Streets. Big Whiskey will not have fans razor-blading the Fire Dancer stickers off the back of their Subarus.  But it probably won’t draw a huge new audience from those living outside of the Warehouse either.

Lyrically listeners get what they’ve come to expect: love and sex, a tall drink, a review of social ills and a search for God and/or meaning.  Musically, many of the tracks are a hard-driving detour from the standard Dave fare.  The album’s second cut, Shake Me Like a Monkey is a sonic party filled with horns.

Funny the Way it is, the first and probably only single on Big Whiskey, will no doubt make it into many future set lists with it’s overly simple juxtapositions.  The bridge on Funny makes the album worth the purchase.  The syncopated telling of “now the world is small,” is, perhaps a perfect microcosm of the whole album in a few measures.

Tim Reynolds adds some driving electric guitars on Why I Am (an unashamed song about LeRoi) and offers some sitar on Lying in the Hands of God.  The departure from Dave’s lonely acoustic offerings is sometimes distracting or at least different.

While the last few DMB albums have been critically panned and dismissed by fans, Carter Beauford’s percussion has been a consistent highlight.  No exception here.  Throughout the record, faithful listeners will remain grounded by Beauford’s work.

Squirm makes you feel uneasy, so it is followed by the nonsensical Alligator Pie, a song you can imagine turning into an eighteen minute jam on stage.  This will be the point in the summer tour where my wife says, “Sometimes I hate Dave Matthews.”  Don’t worry, she’ll snap out of it before the encore.

For fans waiting for the next Ants Marching; sorry, it’s not on this album.  For non-fans hoping to figure out why their DMB-fan friends take their summer vacations traveling around American in earth-conscious vehicles, shelling out a fortune on tickets and merch, you’ll still be wondering at the conclusion of Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King.

Should I buy it?  If you’re a fan, you already have.  If you’re not already a DMB fan, it is unlikely that this album will win you over.  Non-fans should save their money and go see the band at a tour stop this summer.  Then you can buy all of their albums, a Subaru and a bumper sticker that will properly identify your newfound fandom.  Many tour stops, including the Cleveland show, are slated to be opened by Old Crow Medicine Show, a super cool bluegrass/Americana band.

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I must admit, I am a U2 junkie.  Joshua Tree was the first rock-n-roll album I owned, and to this day it continues to be the best album I own.  Having been hooked on U2 since childhood, I anticipate each new album as if I am getting a new puppy.

No Line on the Horizon has everything you’ve come to expect from U2.  Every track has enough signature U2 sound and feel to ground long-time fans, but the album as a whole is a sonic tapestry.

Fans have come to expect poignant lyrics from Bono, the part time activist for grace and peace and debt forgiveness.  Check.  We’ve come to expect Edge’s simple triads that continue to sound new and brilliant.  Check.  As for the rhythm section: we know that Adam Clayton will provide an interesting heartbeat and the steady drums of Larry Mullins Jr. will fade into the background and then WHAM! wake you up as if from a dream about falling off a cliff.  Check and Check.

The wonder of No Line on the Horizon is in the production.  Moving from track to track reminds me of reading a collection of Flannery O’Connor stories in the hands of Brian Eno, Steve Lillywhite, a little help from Will.i.am, but most notably Daniel Lanois.  In addition to production, Lanois collaborated with the band on both lyrics and music.  If you are unfamiliar with the work of Daniel Lanois, let me bring you up to speed.  If the Pope listened to rock-n-roll, he would issue an edict demanding that the world listen to his work before arriving at mass.  He is a deep spiritual fount of music.  Lanois’ fingerprints are all over this record.

As with How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb‘s first single – Vertigo, the most avoidable song on No Line happens to be it’s first single.  Get On Your Boots is, well, a bit awkward, while being radio-friendly.  If you don’t enjoy thinking about lyrics please download that new Brittney Spear’s single, something about seeking Amy.  However if you are a person who depends upon music to bring moments of transcendence, buy this album now.

The refrain in the final track, Cedars of Lebanon, implores, “Return the call from home.”  While I doubt the band’s goal was to stimulate blog responses on the websites of self-indulgent reviewers like myself, please take a second to let me know what you think of the album.  Return the call from ReamofPaper…

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Sea Sew – Review

Lisa Hannigan has been making music with Damien Rice for several years.  Fans of Rice, have been mesmerized by Lisa’s vulnerable and haunting vocals.  The story goes something like this: Damien fired here right before they were to take the stage sometime in 2007.  Rice’s genius is not in question, however in Lisa’s debut, full-length album, she breaks from the Damien Rice lyrical pattern of cheating, leaving, missed opportunities and heartbreak.  It seems she may have given him the pink slip.

Sea Sew is surprisingly happy feeling.  When Lisa reminisces, she seems to recall the happy times in relationships, a lesson she has learned somewhere other than from her former collaborative partner, though there are a few darker vibes, most of them resolve to a sort of calm.

She has toured the late-night talk show circuit playing the inquisitive “I Don’t Know,” which amounts to an endless list of wonderings about someone she’s recently met and apparently hopes to get to know just a little bit better.  Flawless, poetic lyrics are uncovered throughout the recording.

Too fantastic and beautiful to achieve much pop success, a la American Idol, the album is so smooth, it just might work a few knots out of your shoulders after work.