Dave Matthews Band

Dave Matthews Band - Before These Crowded Streets (RCA) It is a fact of music-world life that the production line which bolts together appalling boy band after undeserving girl outfit grinds on ad nauseam, while able artists with something to say still struggle.

Misappropriated space on record-store shelves may account, then, for the relative anonymity of the Dave Matthews Band, a five-piece from Charlottesville, Virginia, led by the eponymous guitarist. A big draw in the United States, but still minor players in other parts of the world, the band borrows elements of American folk - do not let the word be a turn-off - and introduces them to some articulate, sometimes steamy, rock.

It also comes with a social conscience, with Don't Drink the Water banging the drum for the American Indian. The Native American is a pet topic too for Robbie Robertson, whom Matthews sounds remarkably like. Matthews' voice is also expressive enough for him to pass for Peter Gabriel, although he imitates neither.

The Dave Matthews Band has put together five solid albums since the early 1990s, varying the formula with helpings of funk, here included. Picket your record store if it does not stock this CD; it merits your attention.