Away From the World, released in September of 2012, was produced by Steve Lillywhite, who had been at the production helm through the 1990s. Some of the sounds on this album echo back to those songs from that time, and a few tracks, such as Rooftop, carry the dark energy that can be heard in Before These Crowded Streets.
Listening (I mean really listening) to the CD on a recent lengthy drive around southeast Iowa, I came away with a few observations. Even though the song style and direction the band has taken has been a bit of a turn from the "old" stuff, the music is still clearly stamped "Dave and Band Created This." It isn't just the characteristic sound of saxophone versus guitar or busy drumming versus violin. It isn't even Dave's unmistakable voice. For me, a Dave song is always recognizable by the direction a song will take harmonically or lyrically.
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| The deluxe CD/DVD set I had ordered from the Warehouse came packaged with photo book, lyric cards, and this little assembly-required dude-in-a-box. |
As an example, listen to If Only. At the start, the song sounds like something John Mayer or Jack Johnson could do (not to belittle John Mayer, but his style different). It's cool, relaxed, poppy, chillin' outside in the sun music. I felt this way at the first listen. The turn happens at the chorus, when he starts with "but I know you and you know me." That harmonic shift out of a somewhat predictable progression makes the song all his. Now that I've listened to it a few times, it sounds so inevitable, but the song could have gone in many directions.
Mercy was a track that was released as a single and previewed on tour. It's a fragile, politically-charged song that reminds us in a gentle way that we're dealing with a thinking rock star. It is ultimately a hopeful song, in true Dave fashion. Mercy, will we overcome this?/ One by one, could we turn it around?
Of all of the tracks, the one I gravitated to first was Gaucho. Flowing melody over a plucky guitar riff, before leading into the hook: "We gotta do much more than believe if we really want to change things." This sentiment resonates with my own beliefs, which is probably why it grabbed me, but, more importantly, the horn parts on this tune are so well orchestrated. If there were ever a song that so well features what Jeff Coffin and Rashawn Ross are capable of in a "back up" band setting, this is the song. And it isn't really "back up" band in the traditional sense; it's so much better!
The quiet solo Sweet was nice to see on the album. I remember hearing it live for the first time while at the Chicago Caravan show, played as an encore. Someone had apparently gifted Dave a ukulele and with it he wrote a beautiful little song about his young son learning to swim.
In some ways, this album can be interpreted as an answer to the Band's earliest music. When Dave asked "Could I have been anyone other than me?" in Dancing Nancies (from 1995's Under the Table and Dreaming), he replies now with this advice in Drunken Soldier: "Fill up your head and fill up your heart and take your shot. Don't waste time trying to be something you're not."
Well spoken.
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