Review Summary: Technical and groovy enough for the Jam band contingent, while having enough pop sensibilities for your girlfriend to enjoy. Â
The music snob in me doesn’t want to like Dave Matthews Band—and you have to admit, if you regularly visit this site, there is probably a little music snob in you too.Â* All that aside, there is a little part of me that says, ‘the dickhead frat contingent from college was wrong; Dave Matthews Band is not that good.’ But that little voice would be wrong. There are plenty of people different from myself that like the same bands that I do, and that’s okay. If I can get passed my ego for a moment; if I can push my pride to the side then I can be on solid enough ground to admit that Crash is a really great record.
We applaud musical acts every day, for better or for worse. We throw around terms like ‘truly unique sound,’ and ‘originality in their content,’ warranted or not (often times not). But Dave Matthews Band truly does have a unique sound, and in this era of the band, their sound was still fresh, boasting the original line-up.Â* They’ve got a magnificent horn section, an acrobatic jazz drummer, a bass player that could swim with any of the greats, and Dave himself; strumming that acoustic guitar, dancing, as he animatedly sings, screams, and mumbles his heart out of his songs.
It has been said that true genius is often misunderstood in its own time. I won’t go quite so far as to assign the moniker genius to the Dave Matthews Band, but I will say that it is hard to pigeon-hole them into one category. By most measures they’re a jam band—they could be considered contemporary jazz in other lights; and still others angles we could call them alternative; but alternative to what? Alternative americana-swing-rock?
At times Crash rocks hard; at other times it slows down for ballad type love songs—throughout the record the rhythm section and horn section swing hard; the type of swing only resigned to guys named Charles Mingus and Art Blakey. The record remains an enigma that was true of the time when it was released, the mid-90’s. We had heard grunge’s death rattle; new metal was just becoming a thing; it was alternatives hey-day. Hip-hop was on everyone’s minds, and lips, as we saw two coasts fight for supremacy. Dave Matthews Band emerged on the scene and they seemed to be a breath of fresh air—technical and groovy enough for the Jam band contingent, while having enough pop sensibilities for your girlfriend to enjoy. Â*
To me, Crash, reigns supreme as the band’s strongest body of work, and probably a good starting point for anyone just getting into the band. There doesn’t seem to be much middle ground with the Dave Matthews Band; they’re a musical entity that real music fans either love or they hate; like Frank Zappa, or Captain Beefheart, or Tom Waits. But that’s okay—give Crash a spin, one or two good listens, and see what side of the fence that you fall on; chances are, you won’t be disappointed.
