With popcorn acoustic guitars, trampoline fiddles, bumper-car bass lines, and caramel-coated sax, the Dave Matthews Band's major-label debut is like an evening at the fair. "The Best of What's Around" and "What Would You Say" swirl like the amusement-park ride on the album's cover, sweeping the exhilarated and lightheaded listener higher as the ride spins faster. "Satellite" glides breezily like the prettiest horse on the carousel, "Ants Marching" runs around hitting the bell with the sledgehammer and winning the largest stuffed animals at the target-range booths, and "Lover Lay Down" is the quietest moment on the disc--like the sun setting on a baby's sleeping, snow-cone-stained face collapsed on her daddy's shoulder. --Beth Massa
Amazon.com
Vibrant, broadly accessible adult rock that features soaraway, acoustic-based melodies, intriguing fusion overtones (check the sax/violin interplay on "Dancing Nancies" and "Warehouse") and a vocalist as cool and poised as Sting. Jeff Bateman
