Review of Crash by the Dave Matthews Band ****

On the Borderline of Rock and Jazz In a Good Way

Dave is the favorite band of a lot people, and I can understand that.  To me they are as the Chicago, the band, not the city, of this generation.  Like Chicago, Dave plays songs that meet people at a level on the borderline between jazz and rock.  Some of the stuff is complex.  However, on this album Dave suffers from the same repetition problem.  Over and over, the same thing, and not enough variation.  I enjoyed this album more before I owned than when I actually got it.  When it was new, it seemed that the young folk I was among made Dave their first choice when it came to selecting music, and that made me happy.  Why?  It made me happy because I felt Dave was a band that had talent, and that it was practically a fluke that they were somehow able to produce much record sales.  And, I mean selling a few records, not selling a record platinum many times over.  Hugely popular, and playing music that was still respectable in its level of talent is a rare thing.  This album is every bit as good, if not better than their first effort, “Under the Table and Dreaming.”  My greatest praise for Crash though is how solid the album is in its entirety.  You don’t have to skip songs when you put this one in the player.  So, why 4 stars?  I gave it 4 stars because of the positive impact it had on so many people.  I gave it 4 stars because at a time when most music was fluff, the Dave Mathew’s band was producing decent music that was charting.