|
buying more than one thing? (uses Multi-Item Price Optimization™) ...or |
||
Dave Matthews Band
Retail Price (not our price): $19.97
Release Date: 2005-05-10
Manufacturer: RCA
Format: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Track List
Now here, for your listening pleasure, the tracks...
| Disc 1 |
Editorial Reviews (supplied by Amazon.com):
1) Amazon.com
Don't let the headless CGI dancer on the cover fool you. While Stand Up has a more organic feel than 2001's radio-ready Everyday, it is hardly an invocation for carefree days spent twirling on the grass. Instead it is a call to arms that carries over much of the insurrectionary spirit the Dave Matthews Band brought to 2004's Vote for Change Tour. Matthews, sounding rawer than ever, swerves between optimism ("To change the world you only start with one step," he sings on "You Might Die Trying") and angst ("See the man with the bomb in his hand/Everybody wake up," on "Everybody Wake Up [Our Finest Hour Arrives]"), while producer Mark Baston, best known for his small-time work with big-name pop acts like Beyonce and 50 Cent, responds by putting the marching band rhythms of Carter Beauford in the front and galvanizing the music with a crisp R&B edge, most evident in the totally--okay, partially--crunk "Stolen Away on 55th & 3rd." --Aidin Vaziri2) Album Description
The DVD side of the DualDisc will feature a 20+ minute film featuring the making of STAND UP with in-depth interviews with DMB at their recording studio in Charlottesville, VA.
Customer Reviews (supplied by Amazon.com):
Average Customer Rating: 3.0 out of 5
1) Sloppily Produced, Poorly Played, and Easily Forgotten [Rating: 1 out of 5]
I don't even know where to start with this album. It feels like it was so sloppily and quickly put together. The segue between Hello Again and Louisiana Bayou is truly terrible, not to mention the fact that they ruined Hello Again (a previously dynamite live song) completely. Dave's vocals slip past that "terribly lovable" stage and into the "so grainy and harsh that it hurts me" stage. Worst of all... where is the band? It feels like no one in the band is doing anything on this album, and when they are it seems simple and uninteresting.Bottom line: there is not a single song worth listening to on this album. If you want to hear DMB at their absolute worst, listen to "Dream Girl," "Old Dirt Hill," or "Hunger For the Great Light." If you want them at their absolute best, pick up Before These Crowded Streets.Everyday may have been a sell-out, but at least it created a buzz and made for interesting (if not disappointed) listening. Stand Up, on the other hand, warrants no listening at all.2) Commits the worst crime of all: forgettability [Rating: 2 out of 5]
I seem to have lost my copy of this record, and I'm not really mourning it--not nearly as much as "Busted Stuff." Yeah, DMB tried to write songs with the same types of melody and freeform as their early work, but this feels forced. And I remember exactly one musical phrase from the whole album, whereas I could sing you the entirety of "Under the Table and Dreaming" if you asked me to. Don't bother with this one, it's a dud.3) Boring and unmemorable [Rating: 1 out of 5]
I'm not a hard-core DMB fan, but I buy and enjoy most of his stuff. This album, however, is simply boring and unmemorable. There's nothing that comes close to showing the true musical talents that I know DMB has. I got through the first 8 songs and couldn't remember anything about what I had just listened to. I'll shelve it for a couple months and then listen to it again and may change my mind later, but I'm not very optomistic that it will make a difference.4) Decomposing sound touched with fire, and out comes silver [Rating: 4 out of 5]
Three stars is too few for a band that has successfully mined the soul out of their music for the first time since "What You Are" on the stilted Everyday. If Everyday was DMB re-inventing themselves, Stand Up presents them as a band that cannot go home and refuses to. Stand Up should convince even the most casual fan (e.g. myself, I just heard it for the first time last week!) that there was enough passion stirring in the heart of this band to push them deep inside themselves - the end result is some of the bravest and boldest songs composed yet by this band. The songs also come across as more relaxed, even as they dig in and step up the beat.Buy this album, if for no other reason than to remind yourself that DMB earned their spot and deserve to keep it. The naysayers that wag their tongues about the frivolousness of the lyrics forget that the sheer hedonistic joy of the music was what made DMB famous in the first place. People come to a DMB show to be loved because they know they are. This is DMB's "Darkness on the Edge of Town," and should be drawing their listeners back for a long time.5) Stand Up Does Deliver [Rating: 4 out of 5]
Not far from participating in the Vote for Change Tour during the 2004 presidential champain, 2005's Stand Up is filled with a lot of political statements when you listen to the lyrical content in two of the album's best songs with "Everybody Wake Up," and "You Might Die Trying," and they still show the deep thought the band has always had. "American Baby," is another exceptional piece and filters feelings on political and emotional levels. Musically, the production is tight, and while the songs don't carry the instrumental pauses or extended jams as often, they also don't lack the energy. Tinsley's violin may sound a little more discreet, but not lacking as he takes control in the final moments of "You Might Die Trying," and plays a fabulous finishing take on "Louisiana Bayou,"(and Tinsley plus the band jam long and hard when they perform these tracks live). The band experiment with some musical edges with soft R&B on "Stolen Away on 55th & 3rd," and the Southern Country feel on "Louisiana Bayou," but there are a few flaws here and there. "Smooth Rider," would be the dud on this release and not one I would consider as the band's shining moment. "Hello Again" doesn't work well either. But overall, the Dave Matthews Band haven't lost their musical cool and conclude with two more great tracks in "Steady As We Go," and "Hunger For the Great Light," containing the spiritual honesty and raw emotion the band is so well-known for.
