Big Whiskey and Groogrux King Review

Editor’s Note: I don’t think this was published previously, I was surprised to see it as a draft. I don’t have the originally intended date, so the date above is just an estimate.

Well, I’ve been trying to find some time to write up a proper review of the latest DMB album for a few weeks now, but time just keeps getting away from me.

You can probably safely assume, I’m a pretty big Dave Matthews Band fan already, considering I’ve bought all their albums, see them live 13 times (and have tickets for the 14th), have a (legal!) boot collection numbering into the hundreds.  But, as much as I like them, I have to admit that I was getting kinda burned out.  How many 15+ minute jam outs can one person take, after all?

Last summer, like most, I started off pretty strong with keeping up on boot downloads, but got kinda busy, and lost interest, like I do most summers, it seems.  But, then Roi got hurt.   I picked up again, to keep up on the mini-updates between songs.  He seemed to be getting better bit by bit with an occasional set back.  I think everybody was as surprised as I was to hear that he suddenly passed away.  I was pretty busted up for a while.  Listening to Dave’s intro on the day of the announcement was tough.  I had some worries that the band would finish up the current leg of the tour, then go on an potentially permanent hiatus.

But, thankfully, those thoughts were quickly extinguished as bits leaked out that they were still cranking on the new album.

After catching little snippet videos and piecemeal previews of the album prior to release, I was a little more optimistic that things were gonna be alright.  I eagerly downloaded the first shows of the spring tour leg.  Wow, good stuff.  I don’t have a lot of time for critical listening these days.  Most of the time the boots are background noise at work.

But when album release day finally rolled around, I completely forgot.  After remembering early the next morning, I hurriedly bought the album on iTunes.  I gave it a few back to back runs at work and found it very good.  I listened a few more times over the next few days.

Then I finally got into critical listening mode, via my mp3 player and nice 20 mile long run.  In one of the pre-release interviews, Dave says something to the effect of, “if you only ever hear one of our albums, I want this to be the one.”  Yeah, yeah, yeah, I thought at the time.  How could anything top Before These Crowded Streets?

But, it only took one listen without all the normal distractions for me to agree, that is perhaps the best Dave Matthews Band album to date.  There’s energy and innovation that seems to have been missing from the last few albums.  The music is tighter, the lyrics stronger, and musicianship outstanding.

The first single, Funny the Way It Is, took a while

So, check out the album for yourself.  Dave Matthews fans are sure to enjoy from the get go.  Folks not yet fans, please give it a try, you’ll be surprised.