A few years ago, Dave Matthews Band had a moment where they very nearly became cool. Their song "Crash into Me" was prominently featured in 2017's indie hit Lady Bird, and singer-songwriter Riley Walker gave the lost album The Lillywhite Sessions a jazzy, freaky makeover. It seemed like DMB might be going the way of mom jeans and Dungeons and Dragons, as nostalgia threatened to give them a prestige they never had in their heyday.
It never quite took, however. Since then, they've more or less remained exactly what they were before: a frat rock jam band with a devoted following, playing to a huge audience without making any significant impact on mainstream culture. They continue to be a big touring act, but 2023's Walk Around the Moon marked the first time since 1996 that they released a studio album without topping the Billboard 200 (it peaked at No. 5).
DMB (or simply "Dave," as devoted followers are likely to refer to the band) unequivocally have a "big three" albums, with a run of '90s records that capture both their artistic and cultural pinnacle. Most of this list comes from that golden period.
After fumbling their fourth studio album — a frustrating incident in which they recorded a beautiful album, scrapped it, released a much worse album, and then attempted to re-record the earlier album but with inferior versions — their career has been a more mixed bag. They lost a couple of core members, as saxophonist LeRoi Moore died following an ATV accident in 2008 and violinist Boyd Tinsley left the group in 2018 amid an accusation of sexual harassment. These days, co-founders Matthews, drummer Carter Beauford and bassist Stefan Lessard are joined by an expanded lineup of backing players, as they dependably retain their sound by connecting the dots between folk rock, funky jazz and jam band improvisation.
People who don't know the band's music might have heard of the most embarrassing moment in their career: the time their tour bus driver emptied 800 pounds of human waste into the Chicago River, where it landed on a sightseeing boat, on August 8, 2004. The incident evidently wasn't their fault — the driver alone pleaded guilty — but the band remain forever associated with it. I recently went to Chicago with some non-DMB-listening friends, and they were all keen to include the "DMB poop bridge" on our sightseeing tour. (It's the same bridge where a prominent scene from High Fidelity was filmed a few years earlier. Maybe the driver simply wasn't a John Cusack fan?) There's even a documentary in the works about The Crappening, as it's being referred to.
To mark the 20th anniversary of that, uh, stain on their legacy, as well as their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, we're focusing on the positive by counting down their finest work. Any DMB fan knows that the band's best work often comes out during shows, and while we'll be focusing on the songs themselves and not on any specific live performances, the material's on-stage legacy has been taken into consideration.
Here are Dave Matthews Band's 15 best songs.
15. "Grey Street"
Busted Stuff (2002)
Of all the songs from the leaked Lillywhite Sessions that DMB re-recorded for 2002's Busted Stuff, "Grey Street" is perhaps the only one that turned out better, with an arrangement that's basically identical and some lyrical punch-ups from Matthews. The lyrics describe the colourlessness of battling depression, but the vibrant arrangement is anything but, punctuating Matthews's melodic chord changes with big band flair.
14. "Lie in Our Graves"
Crash (1996)
"Lie in Our Graves" is the first of several songs on this list that are explicitly carpe diem anthems — a lyrical well that Matthews keeps on coming back to for many of his best moments. This is a rare example of a jam that actually sounds better in the studio than on stage, with the ambient sound of the group hanging out and playing ping-pong beautifully contributing to the song's feel-good celebration of living life to the fullest.
13. "Louisiana Bayou"
Stand Up (2005)
I'm rare among DMB fans in that I love 2005's Stand Up — an album that embraces synthetic pop textures in ways that are far stranger, messier and more interesting than 2001's Everyday. Clavinet riff aside, "Louisiana Bayou" sounds more or less like a traditional DMB funk jam, with Matthews punctuating its relentless groove with playful octave jumps: "Down by the ba-YOU."
12. "Granny"
Under the Table and Dreaming (Expanded Edition) (1994)
DMB envisioned "Granny" as their debut single, but in the end they left it off their debut album entirely. Both instincts were wrong. The song's start-stop guitar riff, which is largely unaccompanied until the drums finally enter at the 2:43 mark, would make for an absolutely terrible radio single. And yet the "Love! Baby!" hook is one of the band's most joyful, infectious refrains, so it's strange that this live staple didn't get a proper studio release until the deluxe version of Under the Table and Dreaming in 2014.
11. "Don't Drink the Water"
Before These Crowded Streets (1998)
Leave it to DMB to pick a one-chord drone about genocide as an album's lead single. With wacka-wacka wah guitar from Tim Reynolds and banjo from Béla Fleck, plus eerie howls from backing vocalist Alanis Morissette, it's a haunting, hypnotic backdrop for Matthews's account of the Europeans' aggression toward Indigenous people in North America. He sings from the perspective of the settler, using chillingly matter-of-language before the growling finale about "greedy need" and "frenzied feeding."
10. "Warehouse"
Under the Table and Dreaming (1998)
Drawing out what seems to be an extended metaphor for the human body, the spooky "Warehouse" features a relentless guitar groove that crawls creepily around the fretboard before suddenly flourishing into unexpectedly sweet hooks: a jaunty chorus, followed by a tropically sunny post-chorus section. By the time it all builds to an aching sax solo and a mortality-exploring outro about angels and "my heart's numbered beats," Matthews finds the emotional payoff for his high-flown metaphor.
9. "Pig"
Before These Crowded Streets (1998)
A chintzy violin gets "Pig" off to a rinky-dink start that changes at the drop of a hat, as a transcendent hook sweeps the song skyward and Matthews sings some of his most inspiring carpe diem lyrics ever: "I'm saying open up / And let the rain come pouring in / Wash out this tired notion / That the best is yet to come / But while you're dancing on the ground / Don't think of when you're gone."
8. "Grace Is Gone"
Busted Stuff (2002)
Sigh. The fucking Lillywhite Sessions! DMB made one of their best-ever recordings with the original version of "Grace Is Gone," a harrowing country ballad about drinking to remember, and then drinking to forget. They sped it up and sapped the hurt out of it for the far-inferior Busted Stuff version — but the song still remains as the most impeccably bummed-out relic of their scrapped 1999–2000 sessions.
7. "Idea of You"
Come Tomorrow (2018)
"Idea of You" is a poignant epilogue for the original version of the band, as it dates back to the Stand Up era and features archival performances from LeRoi Moore and Boyd Tinsley. Moore in particular sounds incredible, playing a gorgeous counter-melody in the chorus before taking the spotlight during a sublime sax break. It's as good as anything he recorded during the band's heyday — one last posthumous moment of magic from the classic lineup.
6. "#41"
Crash (1996)
An enduring fan favourite and concert staple, "#41" overcomes its slightly clumsy lyrics — vague non-sequiturs and a clunky rain/tears metaphor — with pure instrumental euphoria. In lieu of a proper chorus, Tinsley and Moore lock into a meditative ostinato, giving way to a beautiful series of solos on violin, flute and sax that take up the back half of the near-seven-minute album cut (which is often way, way longer live). There's debate over whether DMB qualify as a jam band or not; this song is the best argument to suggest that they are.
5. "Two Step"
Crash (1996)
A urgent two-step rhythm chug-a-lugs like a runaway train as DMB hammer on a minor chord, setting a spooky mood for some particularly horny come-ons from Matthews ("You laid down to give to me just what I'm seeking"). It's one of the jammiest live staples in the band's catalogue, with urgent passages that set up tension for the joyful release of the chorus and its characteristic seize-the-day sloganeering: "Celebrate we will / Because life is short but sweet for certain."
4. "Crush"
Before These Crowded Streets (1998)
Forget "Crash into Me," because "Crush" is the truly great collision-related love song in DMB's catalogue. The band have lots of eight-minute songs, but "Crush" is a rarity in that its length mostly doesn't come from jamming, but rather from the sprawling intricacy of the songwriting. Hooks pile upon hooks, with Matthews conveying the intensity of love every time the chorus swoops up to a new climax.
3. "The Best of What's Around"
Under the Table and Dreaming (1998)
With the first song from their first studio album, Dave Matthews Band completely nailed the wide-eyed optimism that would become their trademark: a charming and slightly dopey philosophical outlook that was embraced by the collegiate party scene, making DMB synonymous with frat bros during the '90s and early '00s. The chorus of "The Best of What's Around" has a shimmering magic to it, with bluesy breakdowns paying off in a soaring "hey la" singalong.
2. "Ants Marching"
Under the Table and Dreaming (1998)
The most-played song in the band's catalogue begins with a bubblegum two-chord motif and some very "we live in a society" lyrics about how hectic modern life is. But the simplicity of this opening section pays off with impeccable pacing later on: a chorus that Matthews initially sings over the verse riff before switching to a minor chord for subsequent repetitions, a glorious drop of Under the Table and Dreaming's title lyric, and a two-part bridge featuring some pseudo-rapping. After a violin hoedown, LeRoi Moore delivers a drop-dead gorgeous solo, which is up there with "Baker Street" and "Careless Whisper" as popular music's ultimate sax jam; the four bars from 3:55 to 4:05 are the best 10 seconds of music DMB have ever made.
1. "Tripping Billies"
Crash (1996)
DMB have always specialized in carpe diem anthems, but there's an undercurrent of morbidity to even their most celebratory songs. That's particularly true of "Tripping Billies" and its refrain of "Eat, drink and be merry / For tomorrow we die." With a hyperactive BPM, giddy melodies and a chorus like a wall decal from HomeSense, it initially scans as a carefree good time — but dig a little deeper and the sinister side emerges: "Bumblebees were stinging us / I was soon to be crazy," Matthews yelps, seemingly alluding to the sharp jab of a heroin needle. By the time the last of Tinsley's three sawing fiddle solos achieves liftoff, the song achieves a manic, frenzied energy, like the bulging-eyed guy at a party who goes a bit too hard and starts freaking everybody out.