MATTHEW SWEET

Born: Lincoln, Nebraska, 6 October 1964

Genre: Rock

Best-selling album since 1990: Girlfriend (1991)

Hit songs since 1990: "Girlfriend," "Ugly Truth," "Sick of Myself"

Matthew Sweet, pop singer, bass player, guitarist, and piano player, broke through with the highly-acclaimed album Girlfriend (1991), a tapestry of power pop radio-friendly ballads and brokenhearted love songs inspired by his crumbling first marriage.

Sweet was born and raised in Lincoln, Nebraska, where he worked in a music store and played in various New Wave cover bands during high school. He graduated in 1983 and moved to Athens, Georgia, for a brief spell before winding up in New York. After two unsuccessful albums on A&M Records, independent Zoo Records picked him up and released Girlfriend (1991), which would become a platinum-selling debut for their label. Nearly every song is a pop masterpiece, especially the classic rock and roll sound of the title cut. In "You Don't Love Me," Sweet creates a truly heartbreaking ballad, "'Cause you don't love me / You don't love me / You can't see how I matter in this world."

After the success of Girlfriend, Sweet delved into a darker period with Altered Beast (1993), a guitar-dense album that won him comparisons to Neil Young. It was not as commercially successful, but his fans stuck by him. Perhaps to combat the album's perceived somber qualities, Sweet cheekily named his next album 100% Fun (1995), which landed in many critics' Top 10 lists and reached gold status.

Sweet's most noteworthy follow-up to Girlfriend, in terms of what he achieves in songwriting, scope, and production, is In Reverse (1999). It finds Sweet fully immersing his music in a 1960s "wall of sound" technique whereby a maximum, echo-laden sound is achieved through the synthesis of many instruments. Sweet has been involved in all aspects of his albums' productions. By the time he recorded In Reverse, he knew he wanted a large, all-encompassing, echoing effect, which was achieved by employing several people to play the same instrument part simultaneously. Sweet claims that he overdubbed a lot of the songs. Four of the songs were recorded in Los Angeles' Cello Studio, with a seventeen-piece band, including horns and theremin. "I Should Never Have Let You Know," complete with soaring harmonies, tack piano, and organ, best exemplifies Sweet's homage to the 1960s "wall of sound." Though In Reverse did not succeed commercially—it peaked at number 188 on the Billboard Top 200 chart—artistically it was a serious accomplishment.

The pop music of Sweet is bittersweet both in theme and sound. Few performers so creatively and compellingly fuse the influences of classic 1960s pop with a contemporary sensibility.

SELECTIVE DISCOGRAPHY:

Girlfriend (Zoo, 1991); Altered Beast (Zoo, 1993); 100% Fun (Zoo, 1995); Blue Sky on Mars (Zoo, 1997); In Reverse (Volcano, 1999); Time Capsule: The Best of Matthew Sweet (Volcano, 2000).

carrie havranek