• Record Label: RCA
  • Release Date: Sep 23, 2003
Metascore
61

Generally favorable reviews - based on 9 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3 out of 9
  2. Negative: 0 out of 9
  1. By far the best showcase for Dave Matthews' seductive, haunting and deep warble.
  2. The despair is often easier to admire than to love.
  3. Entertainment Weekly
    67
    The Matthews Band's absence does leave a void, mainly because their instrumental acrobatics usually glossed over the flimsier songs written by their fearless leader. [3 Oct 2003, p.70]
  4. The end results are a bit unwieldy, perhaps, and not always successful, but it is interesting and certainly different than a Dave Matthews Band record.
  5. Blender
    60
    Matthews's singular skill is adroitly tipping his elastic, emotive voice and sorority-seducing melodies from buoyant to melancholy. [Oct 2003, p.123]
  6. Too many of the tracks on Some Devil simply take longer than needed (five minutes on average) to reach their conclusion, most running out of gas somewhere around the three-and-a-half minute mark.
  7. Uncut
    60
    It suggests there's far more to him than the anonymous middle-of-the-road college rock for which the Americans have such an insatiable appetite. [Dec 2003, p.118]
  8. Slogging through this stuff is so soul consuming that by the time you get to "Too High," with its pompous rock opera orchestral arrangement and portentous drums, you'll just surrender and let Dave have his way with you.
  9. Q Magazine
    40
    So Damn Lucky and Trouble are lyrical ballads that succeed through understatement, but elsewhere Gravedigger is an awful, hectoring anti-war lament. [Jan 2004, p.117]
User Score
8.6

Universal acclaim- based on 29 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 25 out of 29
  2. Negative: 3 out of 29
  1. JohnE.
    Apr 7, 2008
    10
    This is a great deep album I enjoyed it very much, and still do even after listening to it for a couple of years. I never got tired of it. This is a great deep album I enjoyed it very much, and still do even after listening to it for a couple of years. I never got tired of it. That's the sign of a good album. Full Review »
  2. NiallS.
    Jan 16, 2008
    10
    Love it! One of my top 10 albums ever.
  3. BradH.
    Dec 19, 2007
    10
    Absolutely amazing. Give it 3 listenings and you will be hooked. A must have for any Dave fan even without his band.