The Star-Ledger

DMB returns with new look, old sound

Last year, the Dave Matthews Band received the kind of jolt that few bands must endure when saxophonist LeRoi Moore died in the middle of a tour from injuries sustained in an ATV accident.

Moore had been expected to recover, though he was unable to continue touring after the accident and was replaced on the road by Jeff Coffin. This album, named in part after Moore (whose nickname was GrooGrux), was begun before Moore died, and features him on some tracks, with Coffin (of Bela Fleck's Flecktones) playing elsewhere.

The band has dealt with the transition smoothly, and is currently on one of its usual summer tours. But it has stopped short of reinventing itself. This is a solid DMB album, but no revelation. Like U2's "No Line On the Horizon," it's the work of a veteran rock band working comfortably in styles it already has perfected "" the kind of album that inspires respect rather than excitement.

"Alligator Pie," for instance, might be more notable if it weren't so similar to what the band previously did on "Louisiana Bayou" (from 2005's "Stand Up"). And it's hard to listen to "Squirm," with its Middle Eastern flavor, and not think of the similar "The Last Stop" (from 1998's "Before These Crowded Streets"). The overly repetitious "Seven" sounds unfinished.

Still, the band does a great job of negotiating the steamy funk of "Shake Me Like a Monkey" and the slippery pop of "Funny the Way It Is," even if the latter's lyrics are more well-intentioned than profound. "Funny the way it is, if you think about it/Somebody's going hungry and someone else is eating out," sings Matthews, sounding a bit like Alanis Morissette on "Ironic."

Matthews has some better moments as a lyricist on "Dive In," which attacks environmental complacency ("Wake up sleepyhead/I think the sun's a little brighter today/Smile and watch the icicles melt away and see the water rising"), and on "Time Bomb," which has one of the most arresting opening verses ever written.

"I'm a ticking time bomb/Waiting to blow my top/No one would ever know/Not until I blew up," sings Matthews. How could anyone stop listening after that?