Everyday

Short of the Abercrombie & Fitch catalog, nothing makes white folks happier than a new Dave Matthews Band album. And DMB devotees should be plenty happy: Thanks to producer Glen Ballard, Everyday is DMB’s most succinct statement to date, which means the songs—and not their endless noodlings—grab the spotlight. Unfortunately, when Ballard tries to streamline the band’s jams (“Mother Father”), the jarringly slick results could inspire Kansas to make a return trip to the studio. And though lyrics like “The rain that falls/Splashed in your heart/Ran like sadness down the window” (from “Space Between”) rarely rise above this Lit 101 level of observation, they’ll make hippie chicks swoon. At times Everyday comes off like the American cousin of Peter Gabriel’s hall-of-famer So. But while So was one of rock’s most notorious weirdos acting normal, Everyday plays like the most regular guy on campus trying to be weird.