DMB’s ‘Walk Around the Moon’ – A Brief Review
I don’t know if this has ever happened before, but when three of your favorite bands all release studio albums in the same year, that can be ironic, iconic, a sign, or simply coincidence. It’s certainly the most latter of all of those, but it didn’t demean the anticipation any less. Between Paramore’s This Is Why, Metallica’s 72 Seasons, and now Dave Matthews Band’s Walk Around the Moon, Paramore put out the most enjoyable effort, in my humble opinion. Still, there’s an enjoyable rock-engaging experience to be had with each recording. With DMB’s ninth studio album out this past May, it’s time to take a quick look at this 12-song record.
This was the album that was never intended to happen. As frontman Dave Matthews himself mentioned, if there was never a pandemic, there wouldn’t have been an album. When you’re locked down with nowhere to go, I suppose creativity is eventually going to creep in and do its thing. Whereas the band’s previous effort, Come Tomorrow, had this reflective vibe of watching your kids grow up, we gladly depart such mellow tones for the more varied sounds of Walk Around the Moon.
The title track, which also happens to be the first on the album, was a work of Dave Matthews he admittedly wrote while taking mushrooms. As Howard Stern once said though, some of the best rock songs were written because of drugs. While the song ‘Walk Around the Moon’ isn’t going to make any rock and roll all-time lists, it is a good tune nevertheless and a solid way to kick off the album.
Other songs on the record include ‘Madman’s Eyes’, a piece about mass shootings and the lack of action to address them, though things get toned down from there with the slower vibes of ‘Looking for a Vein’ and ‘The Ocean & the Butterfly’. ‘After Everything’ has a bit of a Beatles feel to its sound, which is no surprise considering Matthews was greatly influence by what is arguable the greatest rock band of all time.
The meat of the album, however, comes in the consecutive trio of ‘The Only Thing’, ‘Break Free’, and ‘Monsters’. This is easily the best grouping of songs on Walk Around the Moon and listeners are gently brought back down with the final track, ‘Singing From the Windows’, a song about the isolation brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic and how one Italian town socialized with music during the troubling time. All in all, it took multiple listens, but this old DMB nut finally found connections with this release.
Rating:
Its a sneaky album. Upon first listen its kind of “eh, well, that was inoffensive”. However it continued to marinate with me and ultimately I’ve become higher on it. They also are working quite well live (and are much better constructed – Looking For a Vein incorporates the saxophone, It Could Happen has a hypnotizing outro with improv lyrics & wailing, they attached I Want You (She’s So Heavy) as an intro to After Everything, Monsters has a guitar solo). The only ones I just still don’t care about or care about being on the album are Something To Tell My Baby and Singing From The Windows.
Brandon! It’s taken me too long to get back to you on this. Yes, I certainly agree that the songs from this album excel in the live show. I went back and listened to Come Tomorrow, then back to this, and while this has (thankfully) a more upbeat vibe to it than Come Tomorrow, it just sounds like a hodgepodge of music. It feels like a Dave solo album with appearances from the band members if that makes any sense.
I agree on Something to Tell My Baby and Singing from the Windows. While I do like the latter, I just feel like both these songs are forgettable. Neither are a turn-off to me like All You Wanted Was Tomorrow though.