Dave Matthews Band:
Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King

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Moore’s last outing finds the band reverting

The tragic death of longtime member Leroi Moore was a jarring disturbance for the Dave Matthews Band, a unit that has always seemed utterly perennial. Appropriately, the first voice heard on the band’s new album is Moore’s saxophone, which flows throughout the album and returns to center stage in the waning moments of beautiful closer “You and Me.” Touching and tasteful tributes to his loss, these bookends are—for better or worse—the only overt departure from basic business on the latest DMB album. While the band takes some sonic risks and shows continued versatility on songs like “Alligator Pie (Cockadile),” the album is saddled with some of the same leaden production values that have dogged the latter half of the band’s recorded career, and the weight of their pain creeps into the nooks where a joyful “Tripping Billies”-era DMB might have stuffed an extra dance. Still, fans will inevitably find catharsis in the group’s mature mourning.

Listen to Dave Matthews Band's "You and Me" from Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King:

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By BobsViews on July 26, 2009

You've probably heard Dave Matthews newest, "Big Whiskey and Groogrux King," blasting out of every IPOD around you. The best songs, co-written by Matthews with various band members, feature questions such as, The upbeat, "Shake Me Like a Monkey" asks, "Do you know what it is to feel the light of love inside of you?" The disturbing, "Time Bomb" asks, "When you hit the wall?"/ "Are you gonna learn how to fly?" You can take these questions out of the songs. You'll get answers from their point of view but you can also ponder these questions yourself or with others. It shows how profound Matthews and his co-writers are as songwriters. I liked DMB's previous release, 2005's "Stand Up," but that was a more somber recording. I get a high jolt of adrenaline each time I listen to their latest release. They ready to take on their audience and in turn the audience will welcome them back. The Dave Matthews Band has proven to be a band with depth and soul and now have produced one of their best releases to date.

BobsViews