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Big Whiskey And The GrooGrux King - Dave Matthews Band
Big Whiskey And The GrooGrux King Image
Metascore
67 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 15 Critics What's this?

User Score
8.1 out of 10

Universal acclaim- based on 53 Ratings

Your Score
10 out of 10
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  • Summary: The rock band's latest album was produced by Rob Cavallo and is its first album without saxophonist LeRoi Moore, who died in the summer of 2008.

Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 8 out of 15
  2. Mixed: 7 out of 15
  3. Negative: 0 out of 15
  1. All Music Guide
    90
    What makes Big Whiskey & the GrooGrux King the Dave Matthews Band's richest, and quite possibly best, album is the implicit message that all the love and loss can be felt and shared through the music, that the creation of the music itself is the reason why they're here--and that's not just a moving tribute to LeRoi Moore, it's a reason for the band to keep moving on.
  2. Rolling Stone
    80
    Big Whiskey, though, is a lot like a New Orleans funeral parade--mourning and zest balled into big, brawny music.
  3. Mojo
    60
    Although every other verse here is filled by paradiddles, polyrhythms and wilfully complex time signatures, DMB's ear for a tune at least provides us with some fine choruses. [Jul 2009, p.94]
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See all 15 Critic Reviews

User Reviews

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Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 13 out of 17
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 17
  3. Negative: 2 out of 17
  1. dan52484
    10
    I liked this album, though not as good as some older stuff never-the-less it achieves relevance for today. songs through out album are pretty good and diverse. Its cool to know that Dave and the crew minus Leroi are still competent in making good music. Its evident that Dave is just doing all that he has ever known, writing and performing art.… Expand
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  2. JDV
    5
    The music is there, but I miss young miserable Dave's lyrics. Rich happy Dave forgot how to write lyrics and arguably his more complex rhythms. Anyone that calls this DMB's best, has clearly never heard, or forgotten Under the Table, Recently EP, and if we're going to include live albums, Red Rocks...nothing else compares.… Expand
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  3. BrandonW
    0
    I love it when the die hard DMB fans continue to say "best album ever" every time they release a new album. Now if we were to go back in time to the 90's, I would agree that every album that came out during that span was the "best album" (ending its run with BTCS). Lillywhite Sessions was good but of course that material was raw and lacking both lyrically and musically - hence the need for Busted Stuff, which was definitely up to par with the 90's sound and depth the band possessed. But this 'Big Whiskey' album is a load of fluff and mundane mediocrity. This is possibly the worst effort given by Dave when it comes to writing intricate lyrics - instead they come out as repetitive boredom. For example, check out the last track of the album: "The two of us together...yeah...yeah." We he feels he needs to repeat that a 100 times throughout the song is beyond me. Someone on here said it best - the rich, wealthy Dave needs to get back to his roots, as does the rest of the band. Sadly the only band member who was tapped into his roots and wanting to get back the sound that made DMB great is deceased. After 5 years of promising new songs heard live like Idea of You and so forth, we get this garbage? I own every DMB album and I could care less to purchase this one.… Expand
    • 0 of 0 users said yes

See all 17 User Reviews

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