The album doesn’t grab your attention immediately. The songs on a first listen for the most part pass on by, which didn’t happen too often on the band’s earlier albums.

The claws, and there are some, do take time for digging in deep. Although electric guitars have been added, something missing from a lot of the band’s work both in the studio as well as live, “Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King” registers as the most subtle album for the Dave Matthews Band yet.

The album’s first half is down tempo, with a weird synthetic sound that’s slightly too slick. This band, after all is known for their live shows. Included on the album is “Funny the Way It Is,” the first single from the album. It’s a very shiny tune. It’s hard, indeed imagining that Rob Cavallo, producer, who helped to sharpen the edge for My Chemical Romance and Green Day on their releases, was even involved on the first seven songs of the album.

However, the mood changes on “Alligator Pie (Crocodile)”, a raucous tune that’s a Bayou brother for the other Louisiana flavored offerings from the band like “Corn Bread” and “Time Bomb,” a tremendously fierce song that explodes in a way that might come as a shock for those who refer to the band mockingly as the “Dave Mathews Bland.”

The thing tying the entire set together and what makes it a worthy addition for the band’s cannon, is they lyrics from Matthews. The words overall are very meditative and medicinal.

The band is still mourning losing LeRoi Moore, saxophonist and original band member, who last year died from complications following an off road car crash. In order to get this album fully, one needs to understand where the band really was coming from while making it. That place is grief, but also a point where the musicians found themselves trembling over and finally embracing their mortality.