Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Review by Erik Ernst
Dave Matthews Band began the recording sessions for its first studio album since 2005 in the same form as it always had. But with the sudden death of saxophonist LeRoi Moore last summer, the remaining four members were left to create an album that advanced their music while also working without - and paying homage to - a man whose innovative, jazz-minded horn work had been a sonic pillar since the band's inception.
So it's appropriate that "Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King" - an allusion to Moore that includes a Matthews-drawn image of him on the cover - opens and closes with the haunting, ethereal strains of his saxophone. In between, Matthews and company celebrate him literally, figuratively and musically while exploring themes of life, death, fortune and love.
Carter Beauford's drums dance playfully around the melody of "Lying in the Hands of God," while melancholy mixes lyrically with hope. "Dive In," "Funny the Way It Is" and "Spaceman" find Matthews exploring his fate alongside that of the rest of the world. Elsewhere, the album bounces from the Middle Eastern-infused rage of "Squirm" to the bouncy joy of "Alligator Pie" and acoustic loving tenderness of "My Baby Blue" and "You and Me."
This eclectic mix is the band's best work in more than a decade - a fitting tribute to a GrooGrux King.
