Everyday

Best known on these shores for his Under The Table And Dreaming album, and if you're still saying 'huh?', bear in mind that this current album sold 732,000 copies in its first week of release in the US. Over there, the Dave Matthews Band are huge, regularly playing Olympic type stadia and numbering such artists as David Gray among their support acts. In fact, Matthews was the man behind the release of Gray's White Ladder album in the US.

Unfortunately, to my ears Everyday is a hobbled work, attempting to straddle too many fences and ultimately toppling into an incoherent and inconclusive (w)hole. All the elements beloved of white US AOR are here: rock guitar a la 'Chili Peppers, lite-funk rythyms a la Hootie, impassioned vocal a la Pearl Jam, yet while individual songs are generally excellently executed, as an album the complete package lacks a centre.

Perhaps this could have been sorted out in the production phase, yet the choice of Glen Ballard again seems to err on the side of caution. The producer of mainstream acts like Wilson Phillips, Michael Jackson and Alanis Morrissette lavishes luscious production of epic proportion on songs that quite simply don't warrant such attention. An example of this is the standard workout that is 'So Right', which comes over as an INXS B-side.

There is merit here. 'The Space Between', despite sounding like it's been lifted from a John Hughes soundtrack, is a well-crafted piece of pop-rock that showcases Matthews distinctive almost-gravelly vocal, while 'Fool to Think' is a faintly Police-y number that tickles.

Ultimately though, there's not enough spit here, and far too much polish. You don't hear great albums everyday, and Everyday isn't one of them.