Dave Matthews Band - Before These Crowded Streets
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Free Music Notes for Before These Crowded Streets
Free Music Review: fantastic.....
Hit: 5 Stars
It took me (almost) ten years to hear this great album! I can't believe I waited so long. The Dave Matthews Band has been a fixture at The Gorge at George concerts, in Washington, for several years now, and Dave, himself, was often seen down at Pike Place Market in my hometown of Seattle, Washington, playing acoustic sets for the public.....that was a few years ago. BEFORE THESE CROWDED STREETS features some of the finest and most eclectic cross-section of music genres I have heard on one album. It's hard to believe that this music was all done by one band. We hear ska, power metal, jazz, world and pop all stirred and then blended into a great musical smoothie.
Some of my favorite cuts include "Last Stop," which eerily illustrates what was to become of the relationship between the United States and the Middle East, only three years later, when 9/11 took place (chillingly prophetic), "Stay," which is an upbeat, fun, and calypso-inspired romp in the grass and makes you feel like the sun is shining even if you're listening to it in the pouring rain, "Crush," a beautiful jazzy love song, and "The Dreaming Tree," which is poetic, ponderous and devestating. There really isn't a "bad" song on here. Dave Matthews is a fantastic story teller and he wrote most of the songs himself. This album is an example of rock/crossover music at its best.....
Free Music Review: Rocky Roads
Hit: 4 Stars
Dave made a name for himself crooning about things like love, lust, longing, and belonging with an opulent and mossy voice. His first two albums swam with sultry and complex arrangements, production values so riotous and rambunctious that they were almost too much to handle.
"Streets" marked a shift in his band's sexily sour and dreamily dour demeanor. There is still the classic romantic chaos ("Rapunzel" and "Stay") and the seeping wonderment of his melancholy moods ("Crush," "The Dreaming Tree," and "Spoon"), and as before it's done with meticulous attention to every chord and spark, every pluck and quaver.
Here, however, Dave has chosen also to get really, really angry. He saturates those moments with just as much technical skill as ever, but gone is the lyricism, replaced by Dave ripping resentful and revenge-hungry tirades out of his throat as if they have been sawed into shape with a cheese grater. I'm not saying he shouldn't be angry (his vendettas are against the rape and loss of cultures/land and also sometimes against things more difficult to pinpoint); I'm just saying he's more skilled at singing about love and bittersweet loss than he is at growling about drinking water and "Halloween."
Free Music Review: I still love this album
Hit: 4 Stars
Ok first of all, I got into dMb in high school and have since then expanded my cd collection greatly, but I still keep coming back to this album and still enjoy listening to it to this day. This album is the quintessential dmb studio album in my opinion. It has the "listen to it all the way through" quality of 'under the table and dreaming' and the song writing quality of 'crash'. Personally, I enjoy bands like radiohead, smashing pumpkins, modest mouse, fugazi, the flaming lips, and the pixies...bands in my opinion who really put out albums that keep the listener entertained from beginning to end, and really give you alot to listen to. The thing about 'before these crowded streets' is that there is alot to listen to without bring things like keyboards and electronic effects into the mix. These guys are great musicians, and despite their frat boy following and mainstream success, this band still deserves your attention. This was the last studio album recorded with Steve Lillywhite as producer and although their recent albums have been some what disappointing, this album still has alot to offer (as does the band **here's hoping that their next album will be a return to something close to this album**). Albums like 'under the table and dreaming' and 'crash' are good too, but in my opinion this album is superior. This album is similar to 'under the table' but the songs have more diversity, and unlike 'crash' which in my opnion is just a collection of good songs, 'before these crowded streets' flows and actually takes you somewhere. If you enjoy this album, check out their live in Chicago cd. Free Music Review: Gargantuan
Hit: 4 Stars
I remember reading a review a few years back on "Before These Crowded Streets", on this site even, and it was just so befitting and stuck with me. The author briefly went on to describe how the the beginning of the album, Dave jollily sings to us "come on relax; put your troubles down; don't bear the weight of your worries here, let them all fall away", and ten minutes later, the realization that this album is often a brooding sermon comes with a bit of a strange shock. This is so the case.
With that, let it be said "BTCS" is definitely DMB's most heavy handed album, and in my opinion, probably their best. Musically, the thing is nearly without fault; these are huge numbers, with absolutely awesome orchestrations and a production that's discontent until each and ever gap is filled. Thus, the songs provide a musical complexity that few albums, especially of this nature, seem to match. And yet, the infectious melodic sensibilities of Dave and friends is still completely in tact. While the result can, admittedly, become a bit long winded more often than not (I think the average track length is about seven minutes), the album's ability to maintain such flair and charm amongst such towering song scope and structure is admirable and rewarding.
My favorite tracks on the album tend to lie within the last half, but that being said those that come before it all possess moments of true greatness, and by no means do I mean to dismiss any of them. The only two tracks I'm not overly fond of are "Don't Drink the Water", which still provides an amazing concluding minute of song, and "Stay", which just never seems to digest properly with me, probably because it's just a bit too upbeat in contrast to the rest of the album, which finds bursts of buoyancy almost only in short spontaneity. So, then, my favorites: "Crush" is astonishing, and for me, possibly the best song Dave and Co. have ever released; the only piece comparable with such epic wonder being 'Crash''s monumental "Two Step". Like many of the songs on the album, its unpredictable and scattering, all over the place in the best possible way. It's also one of the most pleasingly romantic, genuinely giddy songs I've ever heard, with Dave's typically cool, lovely lyrics, and an overall ambiance of sheer delight. Just a fine, fine song. Then, there's "The Stone", which begins with weeping strings and ends up a driving, pensive epic (is there any better way to describe the songs here?) that bursts with melancholia. In fact, many of the songs follow a similar formula; the are drenched in a kind of gloom, but near all of them intervene with a chorus of, at minimum, hope or love. It's really a pretty awesome strategy, I find. "The Dreaming Tree", the longest track on the album, is also extraordinary. While some might find the lyrics on the song a bit trite, I find them sincere, and certainly applicable for dramatic resonance. It's also probably the darkest song on the album, at least in theme, for it never hurdles over the subjects of defeat that it deals with. I think, out of that, its poignancy travails.
So yeah -- DMB's most difficult work, but their greatest as well, in my opinion. Absorbing it won't come immediately -- it's impossible to eat all of this up within a few listens, given the nature of the songs and overwhelming production -- but when it does seep into your soul, it's there forever. I give it four and a half... One of the better albums in my collection.
Free Music Review: The Journey of Life
Hit: 5 Stars
Before These Crowded Streets may very well epitomize the sound and message that defines what DMB are all about(though they continue to make great music to this day)as this 1998 release is filled with songs that weave a tale of the highs and lows, the loves and the losses through the journey of life. Every mood is captured by thought provoking songs that go deep to the heart with lyrics that convey messages of faith, hope, and reflection. You can't not read these lyrics and NOT relate to them. "Crush" is a brillant piece about being caught up in the dance of love, while "Stay" and "Rapunzel" also capture the moods of bliss with a companion by your side. "Dreaming Tree" reflects on regret, while "Pig" sends a message to appreciate life. "Stone" tells a dark tale of loss and misfortune, and one might think Dave Matthews was a prophet when you hear tracks like "Last Stop" and "Don't Drink the Water," which vividly capture conflicting feelings between eastern and western religions, and these songs were written three years before September 11th. Alanis Morissette sings on "Don't Drink the Water," and the closing song, "Spoon," and this collaboration is like a perfect marriage in music. Musically, DMB continue their traditional eclectic sound they bring to a live stage with perfection. Long after other albums have left the mind, Before These Crowded Streets will linger and come back to both haunt and heal the soul.