With new creative energy, Matthews stands tall
Despite hiring a hip-hop producer for its new album, the Dave Matthews Band has not exchanged its jam-band funk 'n' roll for bling appeal. The presence of Mark Batson, who's worked with Eminem and 50 Cent, is a surprise for Matthews fans, but it's not the shake-up some feared. Batson ends up playing an encouraging role -- and helps forge the best Dave Matthews Band album in years.
''Stand Up," which comes out today, is much better than DMB's last studio record, 2002's inconsistent ''Busted Stuff," and has a more cohesive flow than Matthews's choppy, guest-ridden solo CD, ''Some Devil," two years ago.
Batson, who cowrites some of the songs, is able to tap into a creative reservoir of DMB energy. In a DVD of the studio rehearsals sent by Matthews's label, Batson meets with each band member and builds songs around the riffs they're most excited about. Bassist Stefan Lessard and drummer Carter Beauford also play some piano, while Matthews is pushed to write some of his most probing lyrics. Magic happens -- and the cross-cultural blend of a Charlottesville, Va., jam band and an urban producer who usually deals in samples -- sparks inspiration on both sides. Some of the vocals and percussion sounds are more processed, but call it DMB with a few enhancements, not radical surgery.
Each song has a distinct groove. The funkier side is represented well in such tracks as the Sly Stone-like ''Stand Up (for It)" -- with Matthews singing erotically about having an ''angel in my bed" -- and ''Smooth Rider," which has a Muscle Shoals swamp flavor. The song ''Hunger for the Great Light" even has a grunge-guitar riff courtesy of Lessard, whose favorite group is Nirvana. It was a riff that he revealed to Batson in their private session.
Matthews once again tries to reconcile personal bliss with world conflict in his lyrics (you may recall he was on the Vote for Change Tour last fall). Perhaps only he could get away with the opening ''Dreamgirl," which blasts the ''greedy men who rule the world," then turns hedonistic with him telling his lover, ''You're my best friend and after a good, good drunk, you and me wake up and make love after a deep sleep." He further explores his id in ''American Baby" (built around a pizzicato riff by violinist Boyd Tinsley) and ''Stolen Away on 55th & 3rd," about meeting up with an ex-lover and resuming things in the bedroom as if nothing had changed.
Overall, though, Matthews's domestic joy comes out -- he is happily married with two young daughters -- but he's still puzzling through global concerns. In ''Everybody Wake Up (Our Finest Hour Arrives)," he envisions a suicide bomber believing in the ''eye for an eye" theory. In the acoustic guitar-driven ''You Might Die Trying," he advises, ''If you give, you begin to live."
This is a challenging album, but also a great one. Some observers will say that in the more pop-based songs, Matthews is sounding more like Sting, but then he'll veer into everything from Southern R&B to bluegrass to Pink Floyd-ish psychedelia. Something clicked on this marriage of DMB and Batson -- and listeners can count on a rewarding journey.
Steve Morse can be reached at morse@globe.com.
