Busted Stuff is the fifth studio album by American jam band Dave Matthews Band. It was released on July 16, 2002, through RCA Records. Much of the album's material was first recorded in 2000 during sessions with longtime producer Steve Lillywhite which were later scrapped. After the release of the Glen Ballard–produced Everyday in 2001, the band returned to the material, re-recording it with producer Stephen Harris.

Busted Stuff was a critical and commercial success. It became the band's third straight number one album in the U.S., and also topped the chart in Canada. "Where Are You Going", "Grace is Gone" and "Grey Street" were released as promotional singles; the former peaked at number 39 on the Billboard Hot 100. Reviews were positive, with many celebrating the return to the band's classic style after the more commercial sound of Everyday.

Background

In the summer of 2000, the band worked with Lillywhite in Charlottesville, Virginia, on twelve new tracks. However, due to trepidation from band members and the label over the dark nature of the recordings, the direction of the project shifted and the band started a collaboration with Ballard. While the band originally intended to complete the already-written songs with Ballard, a nine-day songwriting session between lead vocalist and guitarist Dave Matthews and Ballard yielded new material that would be included on the much more upbeat Everyday instead. Matthews felt that the environment in which the songs were recorded contributed to the dour atmosphere, describing the material as "sad bastard songs". Additionally, a period of increased drinking for Matthews further emphasized the dark tone of the sessions and the material. These recordings would be leaked in March 2001 through the internet and are commonly referred to as The Lillywhite Sessions. 

After the release of Everyday, the band returned to the studio to re-record the material from the 2000 sessions, now with Harris producing. Alongside the older material, two newer songs, "Where Are You Going" and "You Never Know" were recorded and included on the album. The final versions of the Lillywhite songs are generally considered to be less dark and more polished in comparison to their 2000 counterparts. Some tracks, such as "Grey Street" featured new lyrics, while others were presented in different arrangements or included new sections. "Bartender", already a concert staple, appears in shortened form on the album, being cut from ten to eight minutes.

Music and lyrics
Much of Busted Stuff combines elements of rock and jazz music. In comparison to the much more pop-oriented sound of Everyday, the album harkens back to the band's familiar sound. Rolling Stone described the album's sound as falling in between the "darker folk introspection" of the sessions with Lillywhite and the "pop" approach of Everyday.

The album opens with the jazz-influenced title track, which PopMatters described as lyrically revolving around "the trail of indignities left behind following the breakdown of a relationship." "You Never Know" makes use of shifting, complex time signatures. Despite featuring lyrics in earlier versions, "Kit Kat Jam" appears on the album as an instrumental. Matthews has described the album's closing track, "Bartender", as "one of the best songs he's ever written." Lyrically, the song covers a man's impending death and a look back at the meaning of one's life.

Commercial performance
Busted Stuff was a commercial success, becoming the band's third straight number one album in the U.S., where the album sold over 621,700 copies in its first week of release. The album also topped the chart in Canada, with first-week sales exceeding 21,700 copies. The album would later be certified 2× platinum.

While not spawning any commercial single releases, "Where Are You Going", "Grace is Gone" and "Grey Street" were released as promotional singles. "Where Are You Going" became the band's second top 40 hit in the U.S., peaking at number 39. It also reached the top of the Billboard Adult Alternative Airplay chart, giving them their seventh Triple A chart-topper. The second single, "Grace is Gone", then reached a peak of number 4 on the Triple A chart. Finally, "Grey Street" "bubbled under" the Hot 100, charting at number 119. Like the other singles, it was successful on alternative adult radio, reaching number 5 on the Triple A chart.

Critical reception

Busted Stuff received positive reviews from critics, with many publications declaring it the band's best album yet. Spin highlighted the contrast between the dark lyrical content and upbeat arrangements and compared it to the Grateful Dead's Workingman's Dead (1970) as "a record that celebrates the solace and pleasure of community in the face of loneliness and impending doom". Rolling Stone praised the simplified arrangements of some tracks, stating that "[the album] suggests a new lesson is starting to take hold: Sometimes simplicity is the best route to the heart of the song." The review listed "Grace is Gone" and "Digging a Ditch" as highlights, praising the former's evocation of "the haunted air of a classic country murder ballad" and the latter's "hymnlike glow".

USA Today awarded the album three stars out of four and stated that the recordings on the album "brighten the mood and tighten the arrangements" of the songs in comparison to the versions recorded with Lillywhite. Blender also felt the new recordings surpassed those from The Lillywhite Sessions, calling them "less tentative, with springier grooves and more polished yet still intimate vocals." The A.V. Club described the finished songs as "shorter and tighter", and felt that the "gloss[ed] up" sound did not compromise the album's "soul-searching introspection". In a retrospective review for AllMusic, Stephen Thomas Erlewine called Busted Stuff "unquestionably the best album of their [the band]'s career", praising the songs' "heartbreak and yearning" as "palpably real".

Track listing

Personnel
Dave Matthews Band:
Carter Beauford – drums
Stefan Lessard – bass guitar, dobro, piano, Hammond organ
Dave Matthews – acoustic and electric guitars, lead vocals
LeRoi Moore – saxophone, penny whistle, flute
Boyd Tinsley – electric violin

Production personnel:
 Stephen Harris – producer
 John Alagía – mixing
 John Nelson – engineering
 Leff Lefferts, Enrique Müller – second engineers
 Jared Miller – assistant second engineer
 Ted Jensen – mastering
 Jonathan Adler – assistant editor 
 Henry Luniewski – drum technician
 Robert Montgomery – guitar technician
 Erik Porter – bass & violin technician
 David Saull – horn technician

Artwork:
 David J. Matthews – art direction, design
 Thane Kerner – art direction, design, digital collage portrait
 Danny Clinch – art direction, design, photography
 Catherine Dee – art direction, design
 Gary Ashley, Hannah Connors – photography assistance

Charts and certifications

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

References

Dave Matthews Band albums
2002 albums
RCA Records albums