my power pop addiction, no. 66 (138)

Matthew Sweet divides listeners, but count me among his boosters. I mean, he's a Born Again Angeleno, via Athens, Georgia, via Lincoln, Nebraska, who sings hooky songs of love and loss beautifully and digs guitars and harmonies and shakers and all the things we pop obsessives drool over, plus he uses Richard Lloyd, Robert Quine and Ric Menck as session players. What's not to love? When I first heard Girlfriend back in the early 90s, it was like an oasis in the grungy desert. It became one of those albums I played every day for months on end, so much that even now I always associate it with people and places and things that have long since passed out of my life. But the album still stands up, whereas so much music from the 90s just seems to be phoned in, sounding resigned to corporate domination and a narrow set of joyless formulas. Matthew Sweet is one of the few guys from that period who still sound warm and alive to me. Tonight's song is from 1995's 100% Fun, which is his best album and features many tracks that deploy a three-guitar attack. When two of those guitars are Lloyd and Quine, how can you possibly go wrong? You can't, and while a number of the songs are sad, the album has an upbeat energy that justifies its great title. Let it be known that I love Matthew Sweet and I don't care how many cranky, contrarian rock snobs think otherwise...