Before These Crowded Streets
| Before These Crowded Streets | ||||
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| Studio album by Dave Matthews Band | ||||
| Released | April 28, 1998 | |||
| Recorded | 1997–1998, The Plant Studios, Sausalito, CA & Electric Lady Studios, New York, NY | |||
| Genre | Alternative rock, jazz fusion | |||
| Length | 70:14 | |||
| Label | RCA | |||
| Producer | Steve Lillywhite | |||
| Dave Matthews Band chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Before These Crowded Streets | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |    |
| Entertainment Weekly | B− |
| Los Angeles Times | |
| Rolling Stone | |
| The Rolling Stone Album Guide | |
| Spin | 5/10 |
| USA Today | |
Before These Crowded Streets is the third studio album by Dave Matthews Band, released on April 28, 1998. It was the last official album by the group to be produced by longtime producer Steve Lillywhite until 2012's Away from the World and their first album recorded at The Plant Recording Studios in Sausalito, California. The album title is taken from the lyrics of the song "The Dreaming Tree." It debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 charts after selling 421,000 units in its first week of release knocking the Titanic soundtrack from the top spot after a run of 16 consecutive weeks at #1.
Special guest Tim Reynolds is featured on all tracks.
Several short musical interludes appear between songs:
Songs that were recorded during the sessions, but were not included on the final cut:
"MacHead" was a song recorded during the album's sessions, but it was never completed, so it didn't make the album. Producer Steve Lillywhite named the song, claiming it sounded like a cross between the sound of Paul McCartney and Radiohead. The song's existence is only known from an image on the 1999 fan calendar with a list of the working titles of the other songs on this album and from an alleged meeting in which Jake Vigliotti claims to have heard said recording.
"[MacHead] is a song that we were working on for [Before] These Crowded Streets and it's a song that we just never got to completion before we finished the album. Who knows, maybe one of these days we'll finish it and record it again, but we finished the album before we finished the song."
Some fans familiar with the idea of "MacHead" speculated it had been developed, renamed, and added to the band's catalog. They speculate that "MacHead" developed into "Bartender", which debuted in January 1999 at a Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds concert just months after the April '98 release of Before These Crowded Streets. In November 2009, Jake Vigliotti claims to have heard 6 different demo takes of "Machead" from an early 1997 recording session for the album, effectively confirming its existence to the fan community.
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Wikipedia