Way back in the Fall of 2003, Dave Matthews briefly changed gears and put out a solo album called Some Devil. It had a much slower and softer sound with a lot less jamming than the albums he would typically put out with the band, and with a few exceptions, the album didn’t really do it for me. But it’s a funny thing about albums; sometimes you’ll hear a new album and it just won’t do it for you, but after awhile, maybe weeks, maybe months, maybe years, you’ll give it another shot and listen in an entirely different way. Suddenly, you’re feeling it.
Thanks to a friend on the twitterverse recently pointing out that there is just something about Some Devil that makes it the perfect fall album, I went back and gave it a listen. Damn. When you step back and view the album on its own, without expecting it to be a Dave Matthews Band album, it’s overall a really good album and truly has something to say, and yes, it totally is an essential fall album.
Some Devil is a darker album where Matthews adapts a more melancholy, brooding sound. The tracks flow together smoothly, and beat along in a bluesy sort of way. As one song rolls into the next, Matthews sings about loss, holding on, letting go, but most of all, it seems to be about having hope in a sometimes sad world. Tracks like “Baby” drive that home as Matthews sings “You’ll be a ship in a bottle, set sail.” He addresses our mortality, and seems to say that sometimes life can seem bleak, and some days are hard, and other times things just plain suck, but all we can do is try and rise above it all. The tracks that follow, “Up and Away” and “Too High,” reinforce that idea…have hope, dream big, because life’s going to go by pretty fast, so do something while you’re here and there’s still time to do it. The slow hands are quickening.