Everyday (studio album) by Dave Matthews Band

From luigybetis 07/31/2023 20:27

Some songs are good, others not so good. Nice album overall, but nothing outstanding in here.

Everyday gets bashed for its unabashed pop. It trades in the sax and violin jams for production sheen electric guitar.

Fans were aghast at the time for the bands shift in music

It really isn't that bad of an album!

And understand, at the time, it was made in an effort to get Dave out of a depressed rut. Crowded Streets was dark on a macro level and LillyWhite Sessions (later to be Busted Stuff) was even darker on a personal micro level.

Youth, optimism, and the party of early DMB had passed. Dave did not like getting older and the way the world was or his place in it.

This was their "lets just make some music man"! plea with him.

It doesn't reach heights of classic Dave because at the end of the day, it doesn't really sound like anything else in their catalogue. It is a completely different turn for the band and that jarring sense takes away any chance of it being great.

The whole thing is consistently good with Sleep to Dream Her the only dud.

This was the height of their popularity. They lost loyal die hard fans because they changed their sound so much. And new fans to the new sound didn't stay long after realizing that nothing else in their catalogue sounded like this.

They were left in no man's land with a ever more depressed leader when the great Busted Stuff was made from the Lilly White Sessions. Unfortunately, not many people were left listening to take Busted Stuff in

Mediocre yacht rock.

From junodog4 01/19/2015 03:32

Was it really that bad? This was a step back for DMB, but not the heaping pile of dog-poop the critics said it was.

Funny, I make all the same main points as lightmyway. His is almost a perfect summary. I hadn't read that when I wrote mine :)

This album is generally panned my fans and critics alike, sometimes vehemently. A lot of the hate, I believe, is directed toward the shift in Dave's songwriting that occurred at this time toward more pop-driven songs. This made the band less relevant as sax and violin were more often confined to token solos instead of being an integral part of the song.

This displeasure is warranted, though not a good reason to dismiss the album as a whole. There are some real gems here that get overlooked, and upon viewing lyrics critically (which is one that I didn't do at that time) they are not all bad. Fool to Think and When the World Ends are two songs which play to Dave's strength -- conveying passion, but with a perverse or self-deprecating slant. These are two of his best lyrically.

The band has noticeably exited their prime on this album. But at least Dave has yet to take his next turn as a songwriter, toward songs of bland political awareness, which anyone should admit is far worse

From lightmyway 05/04/2012 23:36

This is a much-hated album, and with good reason as it's very poppy compared to their other work. I think it's still very good though, a lot of these songs are just great.