Dave Matthews Band - Crash [20th Anniversary]

Released in April 1996, Crash was the record that turned a Charlottesville bar band with a violinist and a saxophone player into one of the biggest rock acts in America. It debuted at number two on the Billboard 200, the band's highest charting album to that point, and went on to sell seven million copies in the US alone.

Producer Steve Lillywhite gave the group room to be exactly what it was: a jam-schooled ensemble that could also write a hook. "Crash Into Me" became one of the defining slow burners of the decade, "Too Much" rode a horn-driven groove into heavy rotation, and "So Much to Say" won the Grammy for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group. Deep cuts like "#41," "Say Goodbye," and "Tripping Billies" have never left the setlist, and the interplay between LeRoi Moore's saxophone, Boyd Tinsley's violin, and Carter Beauford's endlessly busy drumming still sounds like nothing else on rock radio from that era.

Thirty years on, Crash remains the album most fans point to first. It is the DMB record where the musicianship and the songwriting finally arrived at the same time, and it holds up as both a document of a live band at its peak and a genuinely great studio album.

This 20th anniversary edition marks the album's first ever release as a double LP, spreading the full running order across four sides of 180-gram vinyl for more room and better fidelity than any single-disc cut could manage. Long overdue and essential for anyone who has only ever owned this on CD.