Sunshine Lies
Matthew Sweet
Shout! Factory, 2008
1 CD
Catalogue #: 826663-10946
EAN: 0826663109467
UPC: 826663109467
You save: 20%
Personnel: Matthew Sweet (vocals, guitar, Mellotron, bass guitar, sound effects); Greg Leisz (guitar); Ivan Julian, Richard Lloyd (guitars); Ric Menck (drums).
After more than two decades as a maker of sparkling, jangly power pop, you might expect that Matthew Sweet would start heading in the direction of, say, latter-day Nick Lowe, slowing down the tempo and turning down the volume for a more "mature" effect. Instead, Sweet goes the other way, making SUNSHINE LIES one of his hardest-rocking efforts to date.
While his unerring tunefulness is always part of the equation, Sweet sounds like he's been listening to his share of Neil Young & Crazy Horse, judging from the crunch of the guitars (not to mention his distinctly Young-like vocals on "Meltdown"). On many other cuts, Sweet's voice seems to have taken on something of a Tom Petty tone as he's gotten older; this works out well, considering he shares with Petty a gift for all-American, hook-filled songcraft. Sure, there are a few songs here that hail back to the gentler, more jangly popster of old, but SUNSHINE LIES ultimately finds Sweet rediscovering his muse back in the garage and wringing loud, juicy joy from the process.
Tracklist
Matthew Sweet
With a voice like candy and winsome good looks, the Nebraska native Matthew Sweet was initially packaged as a cute, blue-eyed pop singer. But after an ambitious debut record that featured a bevy of rock luminaries, Sweet broke through with 1991's GIRLFRIEND, which showed both his power-pop sensibility and his dark side as he unflinchingly explored betrayal and failed romance. That dark side would come to the fore in later records, even in his biggest radio hit "Sick of Myself" in 1995.
