Instruct: Classify Amazon reviews into positive or negative sentiment
Query: A failed experiment

With BEFORE THESE CROWDED STREETS, you can feel DMB trying to stretch. The main problem is that it stretches a too thin. The songs are all over the place musically; at no point can the listener make a connection to the CD as a whole. Middle Eastern rhythms, faux classical, a little country, are thrown together in an unappealing mess. Songs meander, than eventually peter out without any real payoff. There are no hooks to hang on to and no melodies worth remembering. Vocally, Matthews goes from falsetto to growling without any real purpose. It only makes the listener wonder, "Why is he doing this?" And that pretty much sums up the whole recording. I don't feel artists should go stagnant; growth is important. But in this case, it really doesn't work.