ALERT
Dave Matthews is a cool guy. He gets a lot of shit for… no good reasons I can come across, (the Chicago Poop Bus Incident not counting, since he wasn’t even on the damn bus). He’s a white South African who is vocally anti-apartheid, a quaker, anti-Israel, and seems to do his best to be a decent dude. Time to see how I feel about his music.
Song Notes
- “Dreamgirl” - It’s a very smooth song, very pleasant. I don’t have a lot of notes for it.
- “Old Dirt Hill (Bring That Beat Back)” - Quickly proves to be more interesting to me than “Dreamgirl” when it changes to that lower, darker chord.
- “Stand Up (For It)” - Is even more interesting. The drums and quick runs give a much richer texture. A lot more jazzy feeling going on.
- “American Baby” - I didn’t know this song was DMB, but I guess it is. It’s a’ight.
- “Smooth Rider” - Much moodier, maybe my favorite so far.
- “Out of My Hands” - Quiet and contemplative. Love the throughline of the quiet piano and the usage of the other chords to augment the lighter/darker tones throughout it
- “Hello Again” - Feels abrupt after “Out of My Hands” and is almost exactly what I’d expect if you asked me to make a song up that sounded like one of theirs. Almost feels like a soft Pearl Jam.
- “Louisiana Bayou” - Really takes a minute for the flavor to kick in for me, but very enjoyable once it hits.
- “Stolen Away on 55th and 3rd” - Love the start on the saxophone.
- “Hunger for the Great Light” - I’d be interested to hear more of this harder sound from them!
General Thoughts
- I’m not always the best at picking out the words of lyrics as I listen to a song, but the light growl and softness that Dave’s voice has, as well as the smoothness of the music and lack of enunciation makes it easy for them to fade into the background.
- A lot of his music gives the vibes of worship music.
- I do appreciate the optimistic, hopeful tone to the instrumentation.
- I feel like a lot of DMB’s songs take a minute to really hit for me. They take time for it all to really play out and grow, but have very nice texture and flow once you get there.
- Gotta say, I do really enjoy the use of saxophone. It’s always a really strong addition.