"Still Here Dancing With the GrooGrux King"

i could go on a rave about how ridiculous it is to sit down and watch a world cup soccer game...but that defeats the purpose of this "music blog"

not much is on my mind today, so i'll write another album review. this time let's focus on dave matthews band's most recent album "big whiskey and the groogrux king". great album, and was vastly anticipated by fans, and me as well.

i kept myself updated with the album progress even a over a year before it came out. i was disappointed with 2005's "stand up" and overheard that the next one would be an improvement. so i followed antsmarching.org, a fan site for dmb.

when i first heard of the title, i knew it was going to be stellar. "big whiskey" was very dave-esque. the "groogrux king", after a bit of research on its meaning, fit perfectly. for those who don't know, "groogrux" was a nickname for the deceased leroi moore, former sax player for dmb.

anywho, on to the music side of the album. they took a new direction to their music, much like what they've been doing for the entire decade. when you think about it, "everyday" was very mainstream rock-ish, "busted stuff" was dark and complex, "stand up" was influenced by the band's hip hop styled producer, and then now "big whiskey" is a little melting pot in itself. it has a bit of everything.

the question that kept circling through my noggin as i listened to this album was: "is this as good as the Big 3"? the Big 3 stands for dave's first 3 albums, "under the table and dreaming", "crash", and "before these crowded streets". any dmb fan can tell you that those three are one in the same in terms of dmb's greatest work. those albums, although having mixed reception when they were first released, grew to become easy favorites among fans. as for me, i tend to analyze the musicality in its parts rather than as a whole...at least for the first few listens. after a while i can actually sit down and just enjoy the music; what everybody does.

i came to the conclusion that this album is NOT worthy of a "Big 4", and for a number of reasons.

for one, the first 3 albums include a lot of improvisation among the band members, especially leroi moore (sax) and boyd tinsley (violin). almost every song there would be a breakdown in which one of them would have a little solo...and if not, little "riffs" and "fillers" would be scattered within the song as decorations. that's what makes dmb's music so good. they include the little un-replicable decorations that add just a little more to an already great song. as for "big whiskey", there's hardly any improvisation. they decided to keep it safe and stick to the rules to modern day songwriting. same structure: intro, verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, chorus, outro...as apposed to their first three albums where the structure was more like "intro (w/ improv), verse, chorus, verse/or improv, chorus, improv, outro, more improv?

secondly, where's boyd? where's the violin? not only is there no real evidence of violin solos and improvisation, but there's really no violin in general! he's a regular member of the band, so why isn't he a crucial part of this album? i was disappointed with the lack of blending among instruments. they seemed to include more of their guest artist, tim reynolds on electric guitar than boyd on violin.

so anyway this is more of an album COMPARISON rather than an album review. overall, the album is great and it should have won best rock album of the year instead of bile day. oh excuse me, GREEN day. and there isn't a band out there now that is able to play up to the standards of dave matthews band. nobody else is capable of creating something like big whiskey.

so in terms of musical talent and creativity, "big whiskey" gets 10/10.
based off of previous DMB albums, big whiskey gets 6/10.
overall enjoyment and comfortability of listening, big whiskey gets 7/10.

personal rating [which is all that counts lol], big whiskey gets a 7/10.

so there ya go. not the most in-depth review...but you get the gist.

night ch'yall. Cheers!


-Johnny