Description
They are among the most popular concert attractions in America, and, their 4 previous albums have sold more than 11 million units. They are the Dave Matthews Band, and Before These Crowded Streets is the new studio album from the Grammy Award winning group. 1st single/video: “Don’t Drink the Water.” Major U.S. touring begins in early May and runs through the Fall of ’98.
The Dave Matthews Band moves its music forward by increments on Before These Crowded Streets. While the album offers more of the folkish melodies and vaguely internationalist rhythms that made this Charlottesville, Virginia, group a major record and concert draw, it also finds them adding new colourings to the mix. Alanis Morissette guests on two cuts, “Spoon” and the disc’s first single, “Don’t Drink the Water”, and banjo whiz Bela Fleck sits in, too. More interesting, though, is the modernist string arrangement played by the Kronos Quartet on the driving “Halloween”. Matthews’s obvious hopes to lead something other than a jam band are at least partly fulfilled here; at the same time, Streets should keep his customers satisfied. –Rickey Wright
