Dave Matthews Band - Everyday

In the summer of 2000, Dave Matthews Band went into the studio with longtime producer Steve Lillywhite and came out with a dark, stalled record nobody could finish. The label pulled the plug. Matthews was paired with Glen Ballard instead, and the two of them wrote an entire album in ten days. He picked up a baritone electric guitar. The fanbase has been arguing about the result ever since.

What Ballard got out of the band was focus. Twelve songs, no jams, everything trimmed to fighting weight and mixed loud by Chris Lord-Alge. "The Space Between" became the band's first US top 40 hit, peaking at number 22, while "I Did It" pushed the group further into straight pop territory than anyone expected. "When The World Ends" and "What You Are" turned into live staples that hit harder onstage than on record, and Carlos Santana turns up on lead guitar for "Mother Father." Ballard co-wrote all twelve tracks with Matthews, which is the tell: this is a songwriter's album, not a band's.

It worked. Everyday went to number one, the band's second US chart-topper, and has since been certified triple platinum. Twenty-five years later the debate is settled mostly by the fact that these songs never left the setlists. Whatever else it is, it remains the most direct record Dave Matthews Band ever made.

This is the album's first ever vinyl pressing, cut at 45 RPM across two LPs by Chris Bellman for maximum resolution and pressed at Memphis Record Pressing. A long overdue release for a record that finally gets the format it deserves.