Matthew Sweet : Classic or Dud?

Well in the case of 100% Fun, the taste of the record buying public = crap (also the label probably had too many manufactured).

(Is there another thread for this subtopic?)

Let's revive this thread for this sadly underrated fellow. A few thoughts:

100% Fun may be his most consistent release in all. "Super Baby" is so stupid it's brilliant. But Altered Beast's "Someone To Pull the Trigger" may be his best song.

I was looking for my copy of In Reverse this am and couldn't find it, sadly. I'm not sure I would love the ProTools Spector production as much anymore, but there are some great tunes on it -- opener "Millennium Blues" and all the ELO-inspired stuff (he even namechecks "Message From the Country" on one track).

He was opening for Robyn Hitchcock in 92 and my friends and I were at the front of the stage while some roadies were setting up for Sweet. I was telling them how I liked his contributions to the Golden Palominos but was unimpressed with his solo records.

The roadie was Sweet. He glared at me through his set.

Also, Matthew Sweet's cover of "Every Night" on one of the McCartney tributes is outstanding.

Without Quine and Lloyd he's just a nice boy, a second-tier songwriter; with them he's got something to prove, and often does.

A bit of an oversimplification, I think, Alfred.

There's lots of forgettable songs – rote verses, mushy singing – on the "classic" trilogy (at least three per album).

hearing "Girlfriend" on the radio the other day was a pleasant surprise - I don't think I've listened to it in years. But I've found everything else I've heard by him (admittedly limited to singles and his constant presence on mid-90's cd alt-samplers I'd get for free working in a mall CD shop) to be dullsville.

I suppose I'd rather listen to him than Kravitz...

Alfred OTM, but I do think that percentage-wise, said trilogy is far more classic than dud. And select assorted cuts found elsewhere are worthwhile.

I loved hearing Quine on the radio after the local AOR station added "Girlfriend" in the wake of Nevermind's explosion. Also loved meeting Ivan Julian (Quine wouldn't tour, apparently) backstage when I was v. drunk, and telling him it was a shame the Voidoids never played out of New York much as "millions" of people were prolly dying to see them.

Good times.

Guitar Hero has revived my interest in this subject.

ALTERED BEAST RULES!

Yeah, Alfred otm. Timi Yuro otm too about how cool it was to see Ivan Julian, although I only saw him from the audience.

"Not When I Need It"!!!!!!!!!!

I like that one. What I wrote above still stands, though.

Ha -- I was going to say that 100% Fun might buck that trend, but then I reached "I Almost Forgot."

http://cart.shoutfactorystore.com/store_assets/eoc/productimages/b3eoc/sho/82666310946.jpg

New album Sunshine Lies went a-leaky.

Will need to digest, but very Girlfriend-ish in spots.

All I ever heard by Matthew Sweeet is the Buzz of Delight track on the 'Jericho Go' compilation. And it's awesome.

i should probably explore

the album cover screams hit or miss to me, tho

"Sweet Sunshine Lies" is a nice title

girlfriend is dope as fuck imo

"Girlfriend" is great. Then he lost it, kind of, for a few years whilst partly busy to try copying the "grunge" guitar sound, until he made a great artistic comeback with 1999s "In Reverse", which may have been even better than "Girlfriend".

matthew eat morelike. dude looks seriously unhealthy, esp when he's next to s. hoffs.

I still only know his stuff with Buzz of Delight. Their ep is worth downloading for the track 'In Summer'.

Apparently he was also in 'Oh-OK' for a while with none other than Linda Stipe.

god was Sunshine Lies a dog. some of it was just painful to hear, esp. coming from a man in his mid-40s (and sounding it): "Room to Rock" is bad Neil Young.

Then he lost it, kind of, for a few years whilst partly busy to try copying the "grunge" guitar sound

This is no more true here then when you said it about The Posies, you know.

Girlfriend has a solid handful of great tunes and Altered Beast has a couple, but I always get the feeling I'm listening to someone who has studied REALLY hard and done all his homework and stayed up late for months on end getting every tiny detail right. As result, it's all a bit airless and dead, like a painstakingly accurate museum diorama representing "classic pop".

true confession: i've never gotten past "divine intervention" i just listen to it over and over

"girlfriend" is so great

pretty sure the album cover sorta ruined me at a young age, w/r/t expectations of girlfriendliness

"Girlfriend" came up on my ipod on album shuffle a couple days ago and I could hardly bear to listen to it, it sounds so compressed and airless. There are a couple keepers for sure: the title track is as classic as pop gets, but the album's seriously frontloaded and I really had to fight to stay awake through everything past "I Thought I Knew You."

i put evangeline on a mix for a girl yesterday

still works

Never quite classic, but certainly not dud. Someone who was badly oversold by a particular kind of rock critics – they made promises on his behalf that his amiable records could never begin to keep.

i have to say classic just because i was inexplicably in his top 8 friends list on myspace during the year or two when myspace actually mattered. really like many of his songs too, though they sort of reside in a limbo state where they're better if i'm not actually listening to them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXUTfxWJJS4
gotta be one of the best powerpop songs i'd not heard before last week. pretty sure that's Richard Lloyd being godlike on solos.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/LolinaArtPottery?ref=pr_shop

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/80/Matthew_Sweet%2C_2006.jpg/320px-Matthew_Sweet%2C_2006.jpg

http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSi1DLYxiY2-zqetYn6WaDZUNcavyBQDa5x8Ryq0l4BoSVEzKJr

http://mlkshk.com/p/9OWP

He looks like he should be in the Allman Brothers.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/80/Matthew_Sweet%2C_2006.jpg/800px-Matthew_Sweet%2C_2006.jpg

he should really get a friend to wiki edit that picture out! it's frightening!

so great.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5R9xcu2YOA&feature=related

http://bestofthe80s.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/topol.jpg

I saw him on his recent "Girlfriend"-in-its-entirety tour and god damn was he good. The dude he's got playing lead now can really nail those Quine/Lloyd parts, with a lot of conviction if not quite as much style.

love the quine/lloyd guitar detailing, but it's a great song even without:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mab-GckfnfY

i used to have that goodfriend comp on tape! one of my favorite things on it is the live version of cortez the killer he does with the indigo girls. gives me chills.

On those early nineties records Sweet and Lloyd Cole ran an aesthetic managed care facility for punk guitarists. Listening to Cole's eponymous solo debut from 1990 I see Fred Maher and...Matthew Sweet on bass. Cole plays rhythm on Girlfriend. I wondered last night whether Quine did more for Cole than Sweet: Quine's acerbic solos underlined Cole's sass.

"Sick of Myself" became so damn relatable in my 30s....

his current live band is great and he still sounds great singing

i was so obsessed with girlfriend when in came out (1992?) i sent him a fan letter and he sent me back a handwritten letter and all these vinyl singles and eps!

OTM-I saw him on the this tour, and I think it was better than when I saw him on the Blue Sky on Mars tour.
Jason Victor on guitar is pretty sweet too.

Yeah Victor killed it

I picked up the Time Capsule 1990-2000 CD for dirt cheap and I kind of think it's all I ever need.

Something in your eyes
That is keeping my hope alive
But I'm sick of myself when I look at you
Something is beautiful and true
In a world that's ugly and a lie
It's hard to even want to try
And I'm beginning to think
Baby you don't know

all timer