Album Review: The Dave Matthews Band's 'Away From The World'

It seems like just yesterday when I first saw the Dave Matthews Band in a dive bar in Auburn, AL, but the DMB have been around for over 20 years now and are still enjoying a very successful and prolific career. From very humble beginnings playing bars in Charlottesville, VA to topping Forbes Magazine’s list of the highest paid touring band in the world,  their recording career has also seen some milestones with the release of classic albums such as Under The Table and Dreaming, Crash, and Before These Crowded Streets.  However, the DMB has also seen some low points such as the release of Everyday.  Regardless, the Dave Matthews Band is still one of the most consistent bands around and they do not disappoint with their latest release, Away From the World, available today.

The band worked on Away From the World with longtime collaborator,  Steve Lillywhite. Who produced the band’s first three albums and for fans longing for the earlier sound of this band, you will be pleased to know that this is a Dave Matthews Band record.

“Broken Things” is a vintage Dave Matthews Band album opener;  the song sounds like it was recorded during the infamous “Lillywhite Sessions.”

“Belly Belly Nice” is another up-tempo classic DMB-sounding  song…very reminiscent of a track that could belong on Before These Crowded Streets. Songs like “Mercy” and “Gaucho” are the two tracks that most people have heard from the new album and while both are solid, they are the two weakest tracks on Away From the World.

If I had to name the strongest tracks on this record, I would easily name “The Riff,” “The Snow Outside,” and “If Only” as my three favorites, behind “Drunken Solider.”  ‘Drunken Solider” is easily one of the best Dave Matthews Band songs that I have heard in a long while and one of the moments on the record that Dave sings with conviction and emotions over some incredible musicianship and jamming.   

I am going to go on a limb and say that Away From the World is one of the most solid releases of 2012…in line with Jack White’s Blunderbuss for album of the year. 

-Will Fisher, The Showbiz Kids

Showbiz Kids Rating: 9.5 out of possible 10