Dave Matthews Band - Crash
Alright. I have to do it. It's the most controversial album in my collection and i haven't listened to it in a looooong time. It's controversial because some of you i know love it, and some of you detest it with every fiber of your being. It's the sophomore album from Dave Matthews Band, Crash.
No, that's not it. It's controversial because you gotta decide how to approach Boyd Tinsley and the sexual harassment settlement. Plus that, uh, unpleasant incident with his tour bus and a bridge and a guy who can certainly attest to the stink. I am Bottle, hear me squeamishly point out my past instances of separating the art from the person. I think it's fair to point out his coincidental involvement with the band from the beginning. Dave wanted a fiddle part on Tripping Billies, and Dave fired him many years later for said controversies 'cause Dave don't need that kind of headache.
Mrs. Bottle hates it because she was subjected to it on the level of college roommate torture prison. I get it. So, Boyd goes in the tread lightly crate while DMB gets the standard Bottle evaluation (the band doesn't get an automatic ejection for the violinist's questionable interpersonal relationships). Does it flow, is it coherent, or does it make me want to puke?
Most critics wished they weren't a jam band, but were at least glad they were talented. Christgau called it a dud. I guess we'll find out together.
Oh yeah, i remember what's so divisive. This is a character album. These aren't straight forward songs from a reliable narrator; it's not Dave singing these songs, it's various characters in various levels of, for lack of a better word, failure. These aren't mentally together people, they are "heading for a crash." Confusion, aggression, depression, regret, nostalgia. The narrator of Crash Into Me is a peeping tom. These are character pieces, and those characters aren't completely well adjusted, not necessarily bad, but unstable and emotionally fragile. Most people don't have that analytical framework at their disposal, so it just comes across as creepy, aggressive, even toxic. But, like all things, it could strike you as sincere and touching from the slightly skewed perception that this is "normal." Of course Christgau didn't like it, he consistently hates this kind of stuff.
Musically speaking, yeah this album is phenomenal, beautiful. I'll join your every other weekend DMB cover band. Dave goes in the Joni Mitchell/ Melanie crate for pronouncing words weird, but that's just idiosyncrasy. Bottle doesn't judge you for being you, unless you're not keeping you to yourself. I'm not exactly proud to say it, but if you did to me what James Frost-Winn alleged Boyd did to him, you might have a couple nasty stab wound scars.
Dave himself was born in South Africa and had a multi-national childhood (South Africa, UK, and US), and he's not known for overt political statements, so let's just say it's highly unlikely he voted for his now publicly silenced Viginia Senator Chase. "Trump in heels," there's a mental picture i didn't need.
All things considered, a lovely album. It feels like a set list, like it was meant to be performed in its entirety. It's too long at 69 minutes, but there's no garbage filler so it doesn't feel exhausting. I don't want to listen to it again for a while, but only because this kind of folk jazz fusion isn't my native language, it's not crazy enough for my taste. It's one of those perfectly wonderful albums that i can highly respect and praise, but that i have to be in a certain bland and sappy frame of mind to enjoy. I imagine if i smoked pot i'd enjoy it a lot, but i don't so it's just kind of drab except for those deliciously minor chord progressions that surface every once in a while.
Well, that was a long winding improvisatory album review. Fitting, i suppose.
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