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Matthew SweetAlbums ReviewedGirlfriend (1991)In Reverse (1999) Time Capsule: The Best Of (2000) Matthew Sweet has approximately ten albums. Right now, I have like two of them, plus one compilation, so this page isn't going to be complete anytime soon! Girlfriend(1991)After struggling with a pair of unsuccessful solo records during the late 1980s, Matthew Sweet kick-started his career with the emotionally charged Girlfriend. Personal turmoil often breeds great art, and going through a divorce and falling in love again inform the songs here; it's almost a one-man Rumours for the 1990s, encompassing acoustic resignation ('You Don't Love Me', 'Nothing Lasts'), swaggering kiss offs ('Evangeline'), and statements of love, both tender ('I've Been Waiting') and ambiguous (the title track concludes with the ominous "I'm never going to set you free"). Rumours isn't a bad musical reference point for the album either; like Lindsey Buckingham, Sweet's also a studio craftsman with a debt to sixties pop/rock, and this album's awash in warm harmonies (all Sweet multi-tracking himself) and meticulous studio craft, but it's also aggressive and guitar-centric enough to stand comfortably in 1991. While Sweet also handles the bass and rhythm guitars, the record's enriched no end by the lead work of Richard Lloyd (Television) and Robert Quine, who add scintillating solos to most of these tracks. At its best, Girlfriend is a nearly unstoppable mix of huge hooks, emotionally charged songs and instrumental virtuosity; trimmed down to a 40 minute, 10 song album, it would be easily one of my favourite albums of the 1990s. As it stands, the first six songs still form an almost unstoppable sequence - the brash rock statements of the title track and 'Divine Intervention', one of several songs where Sweet vents frustrations at his maker, and the sweet, Byrds-like 'I've Been Waiting' are a solid opening trio, while the harmony laden 'Looking At The Sun', the winsome country fantasy of 'Winona', and the brash riff pop of 'Evangeline' also tear up. The latter in particular is one of my favourites, with its spiralling guitar riff, hilariously over the top lyrics ("Try her on, she fits like a glove/Too bad the only man she trusts/Is God above") and killer Lloyd solo. It's pretty much impossible for the rest of the album to maintain these lofty heights, but there are still some great tracks scattered among the rest of the album - the mournful 'You Don't Love Me', underscored by Greg Leisz's pedal steel, the fragile mental state documented in 'Your Sweet Voice' ("Speak to me with your sweet voice.....it's as close as I get to love"), and the frantic acoustic strum of 'Thought I Knew You' would all make my hypothetical ten song version. One man coming to terms with his heart being broken then renewed, backed by lots of kickass guitar playing - it's all documented on Girlfriend and it's merely a few filler tracks away from an all time classic. 
 In Reverse(1999)Girlfriend is the established classic in the Sweet canon, and has tended to overshadow his subsequent later work, but 1999's In Reverse is even stronger, even if it slipped under the radar since its baroque pop sound was further from the 1999 mainstream than the guitar heavy Girlfriend was in 1991. More than ever, the sound is deliberately sixties tinged, but in creative ways; the title refers not only to the reversed cover art and booklet but also to the reverse instrumentation that colours the album. Few sixties albums used backwards instruments in such a mainstream pop context so successfully ; 'What Matters' uses a melodic reverse riff, 'Millennium Blues' opens with reverse horns, while 'If Time Permits' spins into a great reverse solo. Taking the experimentation even further, four of the tracks use the Phil Spector/Brian Wilson production technique, using up to 20 musicians in the studio at once to recreate the wall of sound that fuelled Pet Sounds and Spector's early sixties pop classics. Sixties session bassist Carole Kaye, who played on most of the original wall of sound sessions, is on board here to add some extra authenticity to the sessions, and the four songs recorded with the band run the gamut from three minute pop masterpiece 'If Time Permits' to an ambitious ten minute pop suite 'Thunderstorm'. On most pop records, these huge sounding songs would stick out like sore thumbs, but the rest of the material here is lush and multi-tracked enough that they dovetail in nicely. There are plenty of great album tracks here, and even if it doesn't have as many great songs as Girlfriend it's far more consistent; on one level songs like 'Trade Places' and 'Untitled' are kind of minor, but they're also full of interesting little melodic twists, and if anything does mar the album it's the more abrasive album tracks like 'Split Personality' and 'Write Your Own Song' which are out of place. Classics include the dreamy 'If Time Permits', which easily makes my top five songs of all time and 'Hide', a sweet piano ballad coloured by some terrific Kaye bass lines and a theremin that takes over the role of a string section without plunging the song into sappiness. 'What Matters' is creative power pop with its backwards guitar parts, 'Worse To Live', another product of the wall sound sessions, rides its huge chorus into the ground with about twenty reiterations, but it's beautiful all the same, especially the way Sweet's voice hits a low note at the end of each verse as the chorus comes in over the top, while 'Thunderstorm' has some great moments over its ten minutes, often involving harpsichords. This is my favourite of the Sweet albums on this page - it's still not quite five star material, but it's awfully close, and any fan of lush studio based pop like post Rubber Soul Beatles or XTC will find plenty to love here too.
Time Capsule: The Best Of(2000)This compilation ignores Sweet's first two albums, made by Sweet in his very early twenties, starting from 1991's critically acclaimed Girlfriend and ending with two new tracks from 2000. Even though Sweet is a respected enough figure, it's surprising how good this compilation is; few artists from the 1990s could put together such an enjoyable collection. Sweet's also smart enough to surround himself with ace musicians; guitarists Richard Lloyd and Robert Quine, drummer Pete Thomas and producer/musician Brendan O'Brien all put in guest appearances. Sweet's bass playing also contributes to the warm sound, while his walls of overdubbed backing vocals are a key feature of the Matthew Sweet sound. He also has a healthy regard for pop history; he's perfectly in step with the nineties, but not adverse to throwing in theremins and mellotrons into the mix when appropriate. Most impressive of all on this collection is 'If Time Permits', an update of the Phil Spector wall of sound. With a catchy bassline, soaring chorus and backwards solo in a concise three minutes, it might be the most perfect pop song of its decade. The collection does get better as it goes on, more because Sweet learned the value of concisity than because of any startling increase in the quality of his compositions, but it's all pretty much terrific. Gorgeous power pop songs such as 'I've Been Waiting' and 'We're The Same', the analogue synth led 'Where You Get Love', the aching 'You Don't Love Me', and the lovely ballad 'Hide' all share album space. At least one of the two new tracks is also terrific; 'So Far' is another Sweet patented harmony laden power popper, although 'Ready' doesn't quite work. This collection does fall just short of five stars; a few of the earlier tracks could do with some pruning, and there are a couple of tracks from 1993's Altered Beast that don't go anywhere in particular, but Sweet's a figure well worth becoming acquainted with. If you feel like picking up individual albums instead, the selections from 1999's In Reverse are generally the most impressive, so that might be a good place to start.
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Written 2001-2007, Graham Fyfe
