Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King

I like Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King. The upcoming album from the Dave Matthews Band is being touted as one of their most anticipated albums yet. In a behind-the-scenes video from the studio, Dave himself hopes that if this is the last album he ever makes, that it be the one people listen to. And people, you should listen. The album is great.

The band seemed to have pulled from their past as inspiration for these songs. Many tracks feel as though they could have been an additional track on a previous DMB album. Songs like "Shake Me Like a Monkey" and "Why I Am" provide a loud, jovial collaboration of horns and percussion that make them fun, cool, and party-like all at once. They could have easily been added to Under the Table and Dreaming or Crash. The album even begins in a similar fashion as 1998's Before These Crowded Streets. On that album the instrumental "Pantala Naga Pampa" led into the rocking "Rapunzel". On Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King it is "Grux" leading into the aforementioned "Shake Me Like a Monkey".

Of course, it with a heavy heart that this album came to be. In August 2008, founding member Leroi Moore passed away from injuries sustained in an ATV accident two months earlier. While many of these tracks were laid down or created with the help of Leroi, the heavy heart of a band who missed their friend comes through on the single "Funny The Way It Is" and on the darker "Squirm". A line from "Funny The Way It Is" sums up said feelings with the line, "Funny the way it is/Somebody's heart is broken/And it becomes your favorite song".

Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King, however, is truly a celebration of life, not a mourning of death. Take a listen for yourself by going to a special DMB Pandora page where you can listen to all the songs on the album, set to go on sale Tuesday, June 2nd. Let me know what you think.