Dave Matthews impresses again

After 21 years of making music and a seemingly endless tour schedule, one may say the Dave Matthews Band is beginning to show signs of wear and tear.

However, that person would also be wrong.

From the initial guitar riff and smooth melodies of “Broken Things,” the first track off the band’s eighth studio album, “Away From The World,” it is clear to see that this group is still relevant.

The album provides not only a welcome return to the all-too-familiar DMB vibe, but finds this group from Charlottesville, Va. back at the top of their musical game.

Highlights include the easy-going groove during the outro of “Mercy,” to the raw emotion dripping off each note in “The Riff” and just about every minute of album’s penultimate track “Snow Outside.”

What begins with Matthews’ love song coos, backed by a simple guitar riff, “Snow Outside” blossoms into a torrential downpour of music in the final two and a half minutes. The final jam alone is enough to earn music listeners hard earned cash.

The sound of footsteps and in-studio gabber segue “Snow Outside” into the album’s final track “Drunken Solider,” which is more or less four songs in one.

Clocking in at just under 10 minutes, “Drunken Solider” is the band’s largest song in terms of scope and is the coup de gras Matthews and Co. were clearly trying to achieve.

With lyrics like, “Fill up your head/Fill up your heart/Take your shot/Don’t waste time trying to be something your not,” Matthews sounds like the father he is, passing down words of wisdom.

While these are not the colorful lyrics long-time DMB fans are accustomed to, the way in which Matthews digs deep to deliver them is enough to leave any stickler satisfied.

Capped off with an outro that sounds as if it was taken right off of Pink Floyd’s “Wish You Were Here,” the track and album goes down smoothly, leaving listeners satisfied yet wanting more.

Despite Matthew’s static lyric writing, the instrumentation and production is enough to call “Away From The Word,” Dave Matthews Band strongest studio album in over a decade.