Published July 25 in issue #25 of The Hook

BY BILL RAMSEY

"I feel like I've finished the picture. I'd left those songs in an ugly little pile. Going back was like seeing old friends again. This is some of the best stuff I've ever written and some of the best stuff the band has ever played." Dave Matthews in Rolling Stone

The Stuff is finally here: the missing link, the would-be other side of the rainbow that left off with 1998's Before These Crowded Streets, the antidote to all those who found Everyday a shameless cop-out, and the fifth (RCA) studio album that-- according to the devout-- should have been the fourth.

While critical reviews are mixed, the Dave Matthews Band's fanatic faithful are jamming web message boards and music sites with comparisons to Busted Stuff's stillborn twin, the legendary Lillywhite Sessions. Fans believe it's a mature return to Matthews' familiar milieu, picking the best of Lillywhite with soulful vocals while letting the band spread the musical wings that were downplayed on Everyday.

The album arrived with little of the expected mania associated with a major Matthews release. There was no midnight sale at Plan 9 on The Corner and little in the way of promotional blitz.

The students are away, explains Plan 9 manager Danny Shea, adding, "The Lillywhites have been around so long." But the Richmond-based chain knows better than to underestimate a new Matthews release: they ordered 15,000 copies for stores around the state.

So where's the excitement? Look no further than the Internet.

Everyday was available for download weeks before its official release last year. And the Lillywhite Sessions perhaps the most "celebrated leak since the Pentagon Papers," as Entertainment Weekly puts it and a retooled, rearranged, and, in some cases, rewritten, Busted Stuff, received the same treatment, available online a full week before its official release.

But mainstream momentum is building. Matthews and Company scored their second Rolling Stone cover story (August 8, on newsstands now) under the triumphant headline, "Back In The Groove," while reviewer Greg Kot (rock critic for the Chicago Tribune and a noted DMBasher) undercuts David Fricke's feature, indicting the band for fussy overplaying and suggesting that Matthews learned valuable lessons from much-maligned hit-maker Glen Ballard on last year's Everyday.

"After years of trying to build memorable songs out of an awkward mix of jazzy instrumentation and singer-songwriter introspection," concludes Kot, "Busted Stuff suggests a new lesson is starting to take hold: Sometimes simplicity is the best route to the heart of the song."

Other critics are less cynical.

In his review for Spin, whose cover touts Stuff as the band's best album ever, Will Hermes gushes, "If serious art is the attempt of the artist to identify his depression, Busted Stuff is where Matthews finally gets serious... the best album of Dave Matthews' career the most coherent and graceful, the least wanky and aw-shucks messianic."

As for never-ending comparison between the originals and the new masters, Jon Pareles puts the matter to rest in Blender: "The Lillywhite songs are mostly improved here. They're less tentative, with springier grooves and more polished yet still intimate vocals."

"Matthews and company returned to the studio to do the job right," sums up Amazon.com. "On Busted Stuff, they revive those solemn songs with diligent intensity, creating lovely swaths of melancholy and transcendence... replacing the gloss of the last album with dazzling intimacy."

Matthews, who mostly manages to remain above the fray, tells Billboard's Larry Flick the album was "a reaffirming experience for us, on both musical and personal levels. The bond among us always felt strong, but we realized that it was unbreakable. It was fantastic."

In the end, Busted Stuff is more musical theater than a collection of songs reflecting a (decidedly bleak) period in Matthews' life. Stuff, more than any other DMB effort, exposes Matthews as the actor and musician he is, and a band at the apex of its musical maturity.

As if the music were not enough, the CD is enhanced with a special internet key offering live access to the band's July 26 Hartford, Connecticut, concert via webcast. Also included is a bonus DVD, featuring live versions of "When The World Ends" from Everyday and Bartender.

From packaging (the album's design is longtime local designer Thane Kerner's best and freshest to date) to production ("We had sheet music," Boyd Tinsley notes, another first, along with the absence of guest artists), Busted Stuff is the concise approach to recording the band learned under Ballard balanced by the spontaneous synergy that occurs when the band brings its magical stage presence to the studio.

This then, is indeed the right Stuff.

#

ew Matthews release: they ordered 15,000 copies for stores around the state.

So where's the excitement? Look no further than the Internet.

Everyday was available for download weeks before its official release last year. And the Lillywhite Sessions perhaps the most "celebrated leak since the Pentagon Papers," as Entertainment Weekly puts it and a retooled, rearranged, and, in some cases, rewritten, Busted Stuff, received the same treatment, available online a full week before its official release.

But mainstream momentum is building. Matthews and Company scored their second Rolling Stone cover story (August 8, on newsstands now) under the triumphant headline, "Back In The Groove," while reviewer Greg Kot (rock critic for the Chicago Tribune and a noted DMBasher) undercuts David Fricke's feature, indicting the band for fussy overplaying and suggesting that Matthews learned valuable lessons from much-maligned hit-maker Glen Ballard on last year's Everyday.

"After years of trying to build memorable songs out of an awkward mix of jazzy instrumentation and singer-songwriter introspection," concludes Kot, "Busted Stuff suggests a new lesson is starting to take hold: Sometimes simplicity is the best route to the heart of the song."

Other critics are less cynical.

In his review for Spin, whose cover touts Stuff as the band's best album ever, Will Hermes gushes, "If serious art is the attempt of the artist to identify his depression, Busted Stuff is where Matthews finally gets serious... the best album of Dave Matthews' career the most coherent and graceful, the least wanky and aw-shucks messianic."

As for never-ending comparison between the originals and the new masters, Jon Pareles puts the matter to rest in Blender: "The Lillywhite songs are mostly improved here. They're less tentative, with springier grooves and more polished yet still intimate vocals."

"Matthews and company returned to the studio to do the job right," sums up Amazon.com. "On Busted Stuff, they revive those solemn songs with diligent intensity, creating lovely swaths of melancholy and transcendence... replacing the gloss of the last album with dazzling intimacy."

Matthews, who mostly manages to remain above the fray, tells Billboard's Larry Flick the album was "a reaffirming experience for us, on both musical and personal levels. The bond among us always felt strong, but we realized that it was unbreakable. It was fantastic."

In the end, Busted Stuff is more musical theater than a collection of songs reflecting a (decidedly bleak) period in Matthews' life. Stuff, more than any other DMB effort, exposes Matthews as the actor and musician he is, and a band at the apex of its musical maturity.

As if the music were not enough, the CD is enhanced with a special internet key offering live access to the band's July 26 Hartford, Connecticut, concert via webcast. Also included is a bonus DVD, featuring live versions of "When The World Ends" from Everyday and Bartender.

From packaging (the album's design is longtime local designer Thane Kerner's best and freshest to date) to production ("We had sheet music," Boyd Tinsley notes, another first, along with the absence of guest artists), Busted Stuff is the concise approach to recording the band learned under Ballard balanced by the spontaneous synergy that occurs when the band brings its magical stage presence to the studio.

This then, is indeed the right Stuff.

#

>> Back to The HooK front page