"Everyday" Is Just That
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On the other hand, some of the music is phenomenal. The arrangements are very tight (no doubt due, in part, to the band's first-ever use of charts in the studio) , and Glen Ballard is a great producer. I am not questioning the talent of any of these individuals. I am questioning the circumstances and how one can believe that ten great songs were written in nine days.
Is this the best album ever by Dave Matthews Band? No. This is not their Joshua Tree. If Daniel Lanois had produced it, maybe. If they would have tried to infuse the Lillywhite sessions with new life? Probably.
Last night, I read the Rolling Stone's March article about DMB, "The Salvation of Dave Matthews." I agree that the songs that were debuted on the last tour and supposedly recorded during the Lillywhite sessions had a somewhat depressing vibe, but at the same time, it appears that the band might have reacted by going too far in the other direction. Every major reinvention by any artist is bound to be an upheaval. U2 made Achtung Baby, which almost tore the band apart. It also set them up to reinvent themselves at any juncture. It's not easy making great music. It is hard work and can sometimes be painful. But the end product has the power to generate change on a personal level.
Is this band the band of the moment? Do they have the kind of power that U2 did in the 80s? In the midst of new wave and pop shite of the 1980s, U2, a rock band with punk roots, took over the music scene with an Irish interpretation of old American Music. There was spirituality. There was a destination. There was a discovery. There was an interpretation. Maybe that is something that doesn't happen in modern music, something that is desperately missing in modern music.
Everyday is not a journey. It is not a discovery. There is no revelation. It is a product. It is an end. It is packaged up nicely with the awkward novelty of a downloadable lyric insert. How many fans will coat their kitchen table with rubber cement in a vain attempt to make that work right?
Crowded Streets was a journey. It started somewhere. It ended somewhere completely different.