Stand Up

Performer: Dave Matthews Band
Producer: Mark Batson
Distributor: BMG (distributor)

Notes: The DualDisc version of STAND UP includes a short feature on the making of the record, and the entire album in 24-bit stereo. This is a DualDisc, which contains a CD on one side of the disc and a DVD on the other. Dave Matthews Band: Dave Matthews (vocals, guitar); Boyd Tinsley (violin, electric violin, background vocals); LeRoi Moore (soprano saxophone, tenor saxophone); Butch Taylor (piano, Fender Rhodes piano, keyboards); Mark Batson (piano, organ, keyboards, Moog synthesizer); Stefan Lessard (bass guitar); Carter Beauford (drums, percussion). When the members of the Dave Matthews Band commenced recording STAND UP, they did so with the express intent of creating an album markedly different from their past efforts. To this end, they hired R&B/hip-hop producer Mark Batson (Eminem, India Arie) and started down a path of experimentation that re-defined the group's creative process. Whether on the loop-like electric mandolin lines on "American Baby," the spooky, slowed-down vocal on "Stand Up (For It)," or the psychedelic echo effect on the chorus of "Everybody Wake Up (Our Finest Hour Arrives)," artistic freedom is in the air here, and the musicians sound like they're having the time of their lives. Even Matthews's idiosyncratic vocals are looser and friendlier, and his lyrics seem more in sync with the music. In fact, the album's overall sense of liberation and quirkiness lends it a sound reminiscent of Mitchell Froom's work on Los Lobos' landmark KIKO. Of course, longtime fans of the Dave Matthews Band will find all of their favorite elements here, including syncopated, world-music-inspired grooves, jaw-dropping drum chops, a few extended jams, and the dark, immediately identifiable singing of Matthews himself.

Rolling Stone (pp.73-74) - 3.5 stars out of 5 - "[T]here's lots of enlightened riff-rock and splashes of color....The band's singular groove is as self-sustaining as ever..." Entertainment Weekly (No. 819, p.84) - "[T]he disc hopscotches among a dizzying array of sounds and approaches..." - Grade: A- Mojo (Publisher) (p.119) - 3 stars out of 5 -- "[N]ow they're changing...to folk-funk/hardcore-gospel! The fundamental is the intimacy gathered around Matthews' new frontporch growl."

Singer/songwriter/guitarist Dave Matthews was born in South Africa, but it was after moving to Charlottesville, Virginia, in the 1980s that he assembled his world-beating band. Adding violin and multiple saxophones to the traditional rock-band instrumentation, Matthews and his cohorts created a unique, idiosyncratic sound that melded jam-band improvisation with elements of folk-rock, funk, and jazz fusion. A homegrown phenomenon, the band sold a stunning number of copies of a self-released debut album via non-stop touring. After signing to a major label, avoiding any artistic compromise in the process, the band immediately broke through on a national level, becoming one of the most popular groups in the U.S.

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