It's amazing to look at the career of Dave Matthews Band and note just how much a model of consistency they've been for the last 12 years of their existence--aside from Dave's slowly aging voice, it would be near impossible to tell one of the songs from 2002's Busted Stuff from 1994's major label debut Under the Table and Dreaming. Sure, the subject matter's gotten a bit weightier over the years, Dave's had his little flirtations with experimental styling and epic songwriting, but for the most part, a Dave Matthews Band song is a Dave Matthews Band song -- one listen to a live show is all the evidence you should ever need, as the "oldies" blend with the newer songs effortlessly, even often giving way to songs that haven't yet made their recorded debut. The band's mélange of acoustic guitar, sax, fiddle, bass, and manic, complex drum work is instantly identifiable, no matter what "era" of their own catalogue the band happens to be drawing from.

Except for one.

2001's Everyday was something of a necessary blemish on the band's career, and truth be told, it wasn't even that bad of an album. Just...different. Dave Matthews found himself increasingly dissatisfied with his own life and the direction his band was taking, and pretty much gave up on the songs that would eventually become Busted Stuff. Dave found Glen Ballard, and the rest is pretty much history -- the two created the short, concise, pop-song-oriented Everyday, brought the rest of the band (and Carlos Santana, too!) in to fill in the holes, and voila! The most reviled album in the history of the Dave Matthews Band was created. Fair or not, mention an Everyday song to 50% of Matthews' fanbase, and you're likely to get the same face that you would have gotten if your sphincter had chosen that very moment to fill the room with the most odious of odors.

Stand Up is take 2 of Dave Matthews Band's ventures into pop territory, as this time the band enlisted noted hip-hop and R&B producer Mark Batson, most noted for his work with Eminem and Anthony Hamilton. There is a major difference between Stand Up and Everyday however, and you three or so hesitant Dave fans who haven't picked up the album yet should take note, because the distinction is important:

The band is still here.

Where on Everyday you were lucky to hear much of Leroi Moore's saxophone or any of Boyd Tinsley's fiddle (save the largely despised (though I kinda like it) "Sleep to Dream Her"), the members of the band are out in full force on Stand Up -- they're just heard in ways that we've never heard them before.

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The choir of Daves (and maybe a Carter or a Boyd) at the outset of "Dreamgirl" is the first hint that we're in for something different, though the rest of the song is pretty typical DaveMusic, with a nice triplet pattern in the guitars a mellow, coasting sort of feel. Once again, Dave treads the line between love and obsession with lines like I was feelin' like a creep as I watched you asleep facedown in the grass in the park in the middle of a hot afternoon / Your top was untied and I thought how nice it would be to follow the sweat down your spine... but Dave knows the chicks dig the obsession thing anyway. You've seen Say Anything, right? "Old Dirt Hill (Bring that Beat Back)" is the first inkling that Stand Up is something far, far different than we're used to hearing from Dave, as there's something that sounds suspiciously like a drum machine providing a claptrack right up front in the mix! Combine that with a chorus that sounds oddly like someone other than Dave is singing it (it's really, uh, "clean"), and this is definitely...different. I wasn't sure I liked it at first, but then I found myself singing the chorus over and over at inappropriate times, and I knew my heart had accepted what my head couldn't quite--this is as sunny and pleasant a song as I've heard all year.

Of course, to this point, nothing has just jammed, so we're due. The title track does not disappoint. "Stand Up (For It)" rides a quick, descending electric guitar line and a nicely accented chorus directly into oblivion. There's something positively spontaneous about this song, and it's wonderful for it--it sounds as if it could fall apart at any time. The lyrics are over two minutes into the song, and then we get to hear Leroi just freaking shred on the saxophone like he hasn't since Before These Crowded Streets. At this point, I'm just getting chills and loving every minute, and there's nothing anyone can do to stop me.

Current single "American Baby" is preceded by a two-minute intro, filled with pianos, what might be electric fiddle, and the sounds of war--the intro itself is actually a lovely, poignant, surprisingly abstract piece for the Dave Matthews Band, actually touching on classical waltz before launching into the distinctive plucked fiddles and soaring, stadium choruses of the song proper. "American Baby" is actually pretty typical of the band, carrying something of a "Grey Street" vibe, meandering on the verses before flying high in the chorus. If these walls came crumblin' down / Fell so hard to make us lose our faith / From what's left you'd figure it out / And still make lemonade taste like a sunny day, Dave sings, in a far more pure manifestation of love than the slightly twisted bent of "Dreamgirl", and we're back to looking into clear skies at the purest of Summer blues.

Of course, "Smooth Rider" shows up and twists everything we know about the Band, employing organ and dirty pianos to put together two minutes (shortest! Dave! song! ever!) of slow-building swagger. Personally, I think it's fantastic to see Dave stretch the boundaries of what he does like this, if only because I like to sing along and pretend I'm cool. "Everybody Wake Up (Our Finest Hour Arrives)" pulls in more classical-style violins for its intro, eventually giving way to more electric guitars and anthemic choruses. The syncopation of the instruments over the playing-it-straight beat provided by drummer extraordinaire Carter Beauford creates a perfectly discombobulated feel, though it feels like it could have a little more power than it does for such a call-to-action.

"Out of My Hands", however...exquisite.

Noted in the liners as "a home recording", the song is primarily Dave and a piano, gliding over a single repeated note. Carter's in the next room providing some subtle, military-style drum fills as Dave sounds as though he could break down and start sobbing at any second. Now our finest hour arrives / See the pig dressed in his finest fine / And all the believers stand behind him and smile / As the day lights up with fire...the imagery is fantastic, and it's one of the only true lyrical swipes Dave takes at the current political situation. It picks up a little momentum at the end, allowing Stefan Lessard to boost the tune with bass, though Dave never picks it up over a whisper. Those particular lyrics actually reprise some of the same words as the previous song, but they just seem so much more sincere here -- maybe because I identify more with sad resignation than calls to action (sadly enough). I know, I know, descriptions will never do a song justice...but a guy can try, can't he? Trust me. Beautiful.

"Hello Again" is a song the band's been playing in ten-minute incarnations in the live set for some time, though here it's pared down to a svelte four minutes. Transitions from a typical 4/4 to a 3/4 with some extra beats tossed in are effortless, and Carter just kills the drums here--it's almost bluegrass in its execution, and the swagger is back. The confidence of the band is just killer on songs like this, a refreshing change from the often tentative feel of Busted Stuff. "Louisiana Bayou" continues the upbeat swagger with an instrumental backing that reminds me more of Stevie Wonder's "Superstition" than anything else, with Dave giving a falsetto toss-off to the end of every note. I could picture the band jamming to this one for days, and the tremendous fiddle solo from Boyd Tinsley is proof that they could. "Stolen Away On 55th and 3rd" employs a mid-tempo hip-hop beat (seriously! I'm not sure Carter even plays on this track!) to put together what's basically a run-of-the-mill slow jam. Funny to think how the time gets away / Funny how you take me right back again, says Dave, and he's saying what I'm thinking about this album at this point.

To change the world / Start with one step / However small / The first step is hardest of all, and blammo, we're into "You Might Die Trying". The highlights here are the drums of Carter Beauford, who's not replaced so much as he's enhanced--his drums just pop here, particularly on the breakdown toward the end of the song. "Steady as We Go" is a lovely little Dave Matthews Band power-piano-ballad with a big fat Leroi-enhanced ending. The disc ends disappointingly, however, on the surprisingly awkward "Hunger for the Great Light", where Dave is reaching for the Great Light of Love, but then tries to get all badass on us with guitars that fade in and organs and talk of you dirty girl. It's a little silly, and a poor choice to finish the album.

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I haven't figured out whether it's entirely that awkward conclusion or just a general feeling of disaffectation, but I can't bestow full marks on Stand Up--it's exciting for the amount of experimentation and new direction that the band employs, but much of it just feels a little...distant. One of the things I always loved about Dave Matthews Band was how a five-piece band with a distinctly big sound could make you feel like they were playing (and particularly, that Dave was singing) just for you. I get none of that on this album, as the intimacy has been sacrificed for broad, sweeping statements and anthemic choruses, with the cold electronic flourish that Batson has provided. Where previous albums felt like you might be seeing the band in a little dive bar, Stand Up would only sound natural in a venue at least the size of an arena.

Don't get me wrong, I love the album, and the new flavors that Batson has brought--I just hope that if the band decides to continue in this direction, that they sound just a little bit more natural in their new skin than they do now. For the time being, however, there's plenty to like on Stand Up, so don't be afraid to fall in.

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I got the DualDisc version of Stand Up, and it's relatively useless as far as DualDiscs go. Do I need a photo gallery of the band on a DVD? No. The making of the album feature was nice, but nothing I wouldn't see on VH1 any day of the week. And instead of 5.1-channel surround sound, like most of the DualDiscs I've gotten in recent days, Stand Up's DVD-side features the entire album in "enhanced stereo". Can somebody please explain to me what "enhanced stereo" is, and how it's better than what I'm listening to in my headphones today?

Thanks.



Recommended: Yes