Dave Matthews Band Album: “The Best of What's Around Vol. 1”

Few bands release more albums than DMB, which speaks volumes to their enthusiastic fan base. With annual live albums, it would appear DMB has pretty well covered the bases as far as their music goes, but with the release of The Best of What's Around, Vol.1, the fans have chosen some of the live tracks they love the most to appear on the double-disc. It makes for interesting listening, and is a solid pick-up for fans and those trying to navigate through the multitude of DMB releases.

Disc One is the studio track album, with 12 songs pulled from the spectrum of full-length albums. Each album gets two tracks, with the usual suspects making the cut. From Under the Table and Dreaming we get "Best of What's Around" and "What Would You Say." From Crash we get "Crash Into Me" and "Too Much", "Rapunzel" and "Crush" highlight Before These Crowded Streets, and Everyday contributes "So Right" and "The Space Between". Busted Stuff offers the excellent "Grey Street" and "Grace in Gone", and from Stand Up we see "Hunger for the Great Light" and "American Baby." For me, the exclusion of "Tripping Billies" is particularly egregious. Disc Two smartly offers live tracks that fill in some of the gaps from each album. The best versions are "Don't Drink The Water", "Two Step", "Ants Marching" and "Louisiana Bayou". Unfortunately, these are all songs we have heard many times on the live albums and they don't really add much to the compilation except for justifying its purchase price.

Overall, this album isn't amazing. It's the embodiment of the Itunes generation. It is fascinating hearing the evolution of the band through the six studio albums, and some of my favorite tracks are on the discs. Had this disc neglected "Crush", I would've put it back in the shelf right away. The studio tracks are not remixed and the sound quality is identical to the original album. The live mixes are fairly good, but again not impressive. This album feels like it was thrown together quickly with a profit motive in mind. Is this a must buy? For serious fans, sure. For casual fans this is a good addition to your collection, but you may want to download your own mix.

A.G. Corwin

St.Louis, MO

I want to start my review off by saying this: I am a member of the DMB fan club (not the paid one, just the one where you get all the emails.) When I got an email about the release of the CD, the email said something to the extent of "to fill a contract with RCA records, the Dave Matthews Band must release a 'greatest hits' compilation." SO for those of you who think it is not DMB's style to release the album, you are probably correct. But don't blame the band, blame the record label.

That being said...DMB then invited fans to vote for the songs that would make up the album, as well as provide the date of the shows for their favorite songs. I think the choices, similar to the band's fans, represent an ecclectic mix of DMB, both in and out-of the studio. The live tracks, as usual, bring an exiciting element to the collection. The choice to seperate the live tracks from the studio tracks is excellent, as you are free to jam out to some live Dave in the car, or opt to sing along with the songs as written (where the words are both predictable and coherent). Definitely not my favorite DMB album, and basically just another 'best of' album, but the best of the best is pretty good.

First of all I would like to make it clear that I am an avid DMB listener and fan. Secondly I should let you know also that I do not own a studio album from the band. Every album I have is live. The title of this compilation is a misrepresentation of it's objective. This album is not a "best of" album, but more of a "greatest hits" album. It compiles the majority of the band's most successful radio hits even though the majority of the songs that did not make the radio consistantly are much better. Personally, I think that "I Did It" is one of the worst songs that Dave ever did along with "Where are you Going." I would say that if a real dave fan were to put this together replacing some of the songs currently present, I would say that The Best of Whats Around, Rhyme and Reason, Lie in Our Graves, Proudest Monkey, Say Goodbye, Rapunzel, The Dreaming Tree, Last Stop, The Stone, If I had It all and Bartender would and should be on this album as a BEST OF album. But reality is is that this is a Greatest Hits album. Maybe a best of tour album will be released, but between Central Park, Fenway, Listner Supported and Red Rocks (the old one) you already have that. Do yourself a favor and avoid this album.

Without going into length, I didn't especially enjoy this compilation. Disc 1 was created by picking approximately two tracks from each officially released CD (in chronological order by release date).

I personally felt that the disc lacked something. For example, I would trade such tracks as "Hunger for the Great Light" for "Satellite," and "So Right" for "I Did It." While I do like "Best of What's Around," "Rapunzel," and "So Right" more than the released singles of "I Did It" or "Everyday," I think "Greatest Hits" CDs are generally created to cater to the people who've heard the stuff on the radio, but just haven't gotten out to buy the CD. There's not a huge need to introduce casual listeners to tracks they've never heard and aren't new, but are available on other CDs. Also, 12 tracks are simply too few for a band with this much in their catalogue. But I guess that's why this is a "Vol. 1," leaving them room to pitch future compilations.

I'm glad they included a "live" disc, because that is an integral part of the band's sound. My thought? Borrow the live disc from a friend and skip buying it, unless it's an incredible deal.

This was a gift for my daughter. She says its a great "best of" collection. Has some concert recordings. She loves it!!