Before These Crowded Streets

Before These Crowded Streets
Studio album by Dave Matthews Band
Released	April 28, 1998 (1998-04-28)
Recorded	1997–1998
Studio	Record Plant (Sausalito) Electric Lady (New York)
Genre	Alternative rock jazz fusion progressive rock
Length	70:14
Label	RCA
Producer	Steve Lillywhite
Dave Matthews Band chronology
Live at Red Rocks 8.15.95 (1997) Before These Crowded Streets (1998) Listener Supported (1999)
Singles from Before These Crowded Streets
"Don't Drink the Water" Released: March 28, 1998 "Stay (Wasting Time)" Released: June 28, 1998 "Crush" Released: September 8, 1998

Before These Crowded Streets is the third studio album by the American rock band Dave Matthews Band. It was released on April 28, 1998, through RCA Records. The album was produced by Steve Lillywhite, his last collaboration with the group until 2012's Away from the World . Recording took place at The Plant Recording Studios in Sausalito, California and Electric Lady Studios in New York. ^[1]

Taking its title from a line in "The Dreaming Tree", the album marked a shift in the band's sound, having darker themes and textures and more complex arrangements. Certain songs see the band apply polyrhythms and Middle-Eastern scales. ^[2] Numerous guests are featured on the album, including Béla Fleck, Alanis Morissette and the Kronos Quartet. Additionally, guitarist Tim Reynolds guests on every track; he would later join the band as a full-time member. Lyrically, the album tackles both personal and socio-political themes, such as war in "The Last Stop" and the slaughter of Native Americans in "Don't Drink the Water".

Before These Crowded Streets was a critical and commercial success. The album debuted at the top of the Billboard 200, selling 421,000 units in its first week of release and knocking the Titanic soundtrack from the top of the chart after a run of 16 consecutive weeks at number one. ^[3] Three singles were released from the album—"Don't Drink the Water", "Stay (Wasting Time)", and "Crush"—all of which received varying levels of commercial success.

Background

Dave Matthews discussing Before These Crowded Streets in 1998

At the end of many tracks on the album, there are "musical interludes" most of which consist of small jams or outtakes not developed into full songs:

• A clip in which LeRoi Moore is heard answering his cell phone follows "Rapunzel."
• A clip of flute music follows "Don't Drink the Water."
• A string passage by the Kronos Quartet serves as a segue from "Halloween" to "The Stone."
• An outtake featuring Bela Fleck and Alanis Morissette follows "The Stone."
• A clip of "Doobie Thing," an early DMB instrumental song, follows "The Dreaming Tree."
• A clip of "Anyone Seen the Bridge?", a live show transition song, and a short excerpt of "Deed is Done," an unreleased song from the previous tour, follows "Pig."
• A clip now referred to as "The Last Stop Reprise" follows "Spoon."

Excluded songs

Songs that were recorded during the sessions, but were not included on the final cut: ^[4]

• "Help Myself" – Licensed for the Scream 2 soundtrack in lieu of "Halloween", which the band decided was too good to leave off the album.
• "Don't Burn the Pig" – Evolved into "Pig" during the sessions.
• "Get in Line"
• "MacHead"
• "#40 (Always)"

MacHead

"MacHead" was a song recorded during the album's sessions, but it was never completed, so did not make the album. Producer Steve Lillywhite named the song, claiming it sounded like a cross between the sound of Paul McCartney and Radiohead. ^[5] The song's existence is only known from an image on the 1999 fan calendar with a list of the working titles of the other songs on this album and from an alleged meeting in which Jake Vigliotti claims to have heard said recording.

"[MacHead] is a song that we were working on for [Before] These Crowded Streets and it's a song that we just never got to completion before we finished the album. Who knows, maybe one of these days we'll finish it and record it again, but we finished the album before we finished the song." ^[6]

—  Boyd Tinsley, May 2006

Some fans familiar with the idea of "MacHead" speculated it had been developed, renamed, and added to the band's catalog. ^[5] They speculate that "MacHead" developed into "Bartender", which debuted in January 1999 at a Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds concert just months after the April '98 release of Before These Crowded Streets. In November 2009, Jake Vigliotti claims to have heard 6 different demo takes of "Machead" from an early 1997 recording session for the album, ^[7] effectively confirming its existence to the fan community. ^[8]

In a 2010 interview with Cali from CBS Radio, Stefan Lessard was asked to give his thoughts on Machead. He replied that "Machead's this little number that I believe was the last song to possibly make it on Before These Crowded Streets and I think there's a recording I have of it somewhere. So it's just finding a recording of it and listening to it and that's on our homework list." ^[9] Although as of July 2024, no official recording has surfaced, a demo recording has leaked and has been spread among fans.

Reception

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[2]
The Baltimore Sun	[10]
Entertainment Weekly	B− [11]
The Guardian	[12]
Los Angeles Times	[13]
Pitchfork	7.6/10 [14]
Rolling Stone	[15]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide	[16]
Spin	5/10 [17]
USA Today	[18]

Before These Crowded Streets received generally positive reviews from critics. Writing for The Baltimore Sun , J. D. Considine stated that with the album, the band had "improved on every level", praising the writing, playing and ambition of the arrangements. ^[10] Additionally, he praised the band for integrating many guests on the album and for "broadening [their] palette". ^[10] Mark Weingarten, writing for the Los Angeles Times , highlighted the tracks "Rapunzel" and "The Stone" in particular for their "vertiginous polyrhythms and serpentine riffs that dart around Matthew's clenched vocals, yet always manage to lock into an enjoyable groove." ^[13]

In a retrospective review for AllMusic, Stephen Thomas Erlewine felt that despite the "songwriting remain[ing] a problem" and finding Matthews' lyrics occasionally "embarrassing", the album's "sonic daring results in the most satisfying album they've yet recorded." ^[2] Another retrospective review came from Pitchfork 's Jason P. Woodbury, who wrote that it "remains DMB's most experimental album, a crossroads in the band's history" and stated that it "explores the uneasy zone between celebratory anthems and grim lamentations". ^[14]

Track listing

Special guest Tim Reynolds is featured on all tracks.

Before These Crowded Streets track listing

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Guest musician(s)	Length
1.	"Pantala Naga Pampa"	Dave Matthews		0:40
2.	"Rapunzel"	Matthews, Stefan Lessard, Carter Beauford	Butch Taylor	6:00
3.	"The Last Stop"	Matthews, Lessard	Béla Fleck	6:57
4.	"Don't Drink the Water"	Matthews	Alanis Morissette, Béla Fleck	7:01
5.	"Stay (Wasting Time)"	Matthews, Lessard, LeRoi Moore	Tawatha Agee, Cindy Mizelle, Brenda White King	5:35
6.	"Halloween"	Matthews	John D'earth, Kronos Quartet	5:07
7.	"The Stone"	Matthews	John D'earth, Kronos Quartet, Béla Fleck	7:28
8.	"Crush"	Matthews	Butch Taylor	8:09
9.	"The Dreaming Tree"	Matthews, Lessard	Greg Howard	8:48
10.	"Pig"	Matthews, Lessard, Beauford, Moore, Boyd Tinsley		6:57
11.	"Spoon"	Matthews	Alanis Morissette, Béla Fleck	7:33
Total length:				70:14

Personnel

Dave Matthews Band Carter Beauford  – drums, percussion, backing vocals Stefan Lessard  – bass guitar Dave Matthews  – vocals, acoustic guitar LeRoi Moore  – saxophone, penny whistle, bass clarinet Boyd Tinsley  – acoustic violin with special guest: Tim Reynolds  – electric guitar and mandolin Additional musicians The Lovely Ladies – background vocals (5) Tawatha Agee Cindy Myzell Brenda White-King John D'earth  – trumpet (6) Béla Fleck  – banjo (3, 4, 11) Greg Howard  – Chapman Stick (9) Kronos Quartet  – strings (6, 7) David Harrington – violin John Sherba – violin Hank Dutt – viola Joan Jeanrenaud  – cello Alanis Morissette  – guest vocals (4, 11) Butch Taylor  – piano and organ (2, 8)

Technical Steve Lillywhite  – producer, mixing Stephen Harris  – engineer John Alagía  – additional pre-production Joel Cortright – assistant engineer John Seymour – assistant engineer Ted Jensen  – mastering John D'earth – orchestral arrangements (6, 7) Thane Kerner – art direction, design Ellen von Unwerth  – photography

Charts

Weekly charts Weekly chart performance for Before These Crowded Streets Chart (1998) Peak position Australian Albums (ARIA) [19] 66 Canadian Albums (Billboard) [20] 6 New Zealand Albums (RMNZ) [21] 29 Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan) [22] 44 US Billboard 200 [23] 1

Year-end charts Year-end chart performance for Before These Crowded Streets Chart Year Position US Billboard 200 [24] 1998 30 US Billboard 200 [25] 1999 77 Canadian Alternative Albums (Nielsen SoundScan) [26] 2002 184

Certifications

Certifications for Before These Crowded Streets

Region	Certification	Certified units/sales
Canada (Music Canada) [27]	Platinum	100,000^
United States (RIAA) [28]	4× Platinum	4,000,000‡
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. ‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.

References

1. Jacobson, Jeff. Dave Matthews Band: Busted Stuff Guitar and Vocal, 2002, page 2, Cherry Lane Music Company.
2. Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Before These Crowded Streets – Dave Matthews / Dave Matthews Band". AllMusic . Retrieved January 15, 2012.
3. "Crowded At The Top: DMB on the Charts". Rolling Stone. Retrieved October 26, 2016.
4. "Dave Matthews Band". antsmarching.org. Retrieved January 15, 2012.
5. "Dave Matthews Band". antsmarching.org. November 3, 2003. Retrieved January 15, 2012.
6. Maliszeski, Joe (May 2, 2006). "Boyd takes ESPN By Storm (Wimbledon Music) (Machead)". Antsmarching.org. Archived from the original on June 4, 2007. Retrieved May 6, 2007.
7. "Dave Matthews Band". antsmarching.org. Retrieved January 15, 2012.
8. "Dave Matthews Band". antsmarching.org. Retrieved January 15, 2012.
9. "More With Cali & Stefan on the DMB Tour Bus". CBSRadio. June 10, 2010. Archived from the original on June 14, 2010. Retrieved June 24, 2010.
10. Considine, J. D. (April 28, 1998). "Adding points to the stars". The Baltimore Sun . Retrieved October 10, 2021.
11. Browne, David (May 8, 1998). "Before These Crowded Streets". Entertainment Weekly . New York. Retrieved January 15, 2012.
12. Sullivan, Caroline (June 26, 1998). "Dave on". The Guardian . London.
13. Weingarten, Marc (April 26, 1998). "Dave Matthews Band, 'Before These Crowded Streets,' RCA". Los Angeles Times . Archived from the original on November 4, 2016. Retrieved November 2, 2016.
14. Woodbury, Jason P. "Dave Matthews Band: Before These Crowded Streets Album Review". Pitchfork . Retrieved November 4, 2023.
15. DeCurtis, Anthony (May 14, 1998). "Before These Crowded Streets". Rolling Stone . New York. Retrieved January 15, 2012.
16. Puterbaugh, Parke (2004). "Dave Matthews Band". In Brackett, Nathan; Hoard, Christian (eds.). The New Rolling Stone Album Guide (4th ed.). Simon & Schuster. pp.  519–520. ISBN   0-7432-0169-8.
17. Berrett, Jesse (June 1998). "Dave Matthews Band: Before These Crowded Streets". Spin . Vol. 14, no. 6. New York. p. 132. Retrieved November 2, 2016.
18. Gundersen, Edna (May 5, 1998). "Dave Matthews Band, Before These Crowded Streets". USA Today . McLean. Archived from the original on November 4, 2016. Retrieved November 2, 2016.
19. Ryan, Gavin (2011). Australia's Music Charts 1988–2010 (PDF ed.). Mt Martha, Victoria, Australia: Moonlight Publishing. p. 179.
20. "Dave Matthews Band Chart History (Canadian Albums)". Billboard. Retrieved November 28, 2020.
21. "Charts.nz – Dave Matthews Band – Before These Crowded Streets". Hung Medien. Retrieved November 28, 2020.
22. "Swedishcharts.com – Dave Matthews Band – Before These Crowded Streets". Hung Medien. Retrieved November 28, 2020.
23. "Dave Matthews Band Chart History (Billboard 200)". Billboard. Retrieved November 28, 2020.
24. "Top Billboard 200 Albums – Year-End 1998". Billboard. Retrieved November 28, 2020.
25. "Top Billboard 200 Albums – Year-End 1999". Billboard. Retrieved November 28, 2020.
26. "Canada's Top 200 Alternative albums of 2002". Jam! . Archived from the original on September 2, 2004. Retrieved March 28, 2022.
27. "Canadian album certifications – Dave Matthews Band – Before These Crowded Streets". Music Canada . Retrieved November 15, 2021.
28. "American album certifications – Dave Matthews Band – Before These Crowded Streets". Recording Industry Association of America . Retrieved November 15, 2021.