In an episode of Apple Music’s Time Disaster forward of the Could 2023 launch of Stroll Across the Moon, Dave Matthews mentioned two of his greatest influences have been Speaking Heads and Kate Bush. Not the names you would possibly instantly anticipate, however ones that make a poetic sort of sense. Like Bush or David Byrne, Matthews is an artist whose model appears apparent from a distance however virtually not possible to hint or imitate once you rise up shut. Grateful Lifeless? “None,” he says. Van Morrison? “Completely.” However 10 albums and 30 years in and there’s nonetheless no higher comparability than themselves.
Began in 2020 and that includes new keyboardist Buddy Sturdy, the songs on Moon can nonetheless summon the dreaminess of childhood with the grain and melancholy of center age (“The Ocean and the Butterfly”) and make easy, sentimental folks ripple with simply sufficient uncertainty to sound mysterious (“One thing to Inform My Child”). And the place different adult-contemporary-adjacent acts are inclined to spherical their edges within the identify of a smoother and extra palliative expertise, the angst and, frankly, horniness of DMB’s rock songs have at all times made them pricklier than they first seem (“After The whole lot,” “The Solely Factor”). Getting older gracefully, positive—however extra importantly, with honesty.
