Hey Kathryn:

If I read you correctly, you say that you have a "best of Matthew Sweet" disc and are considering looking further into him.  I'll give you the ol' Herring rundown of his albums:

Matthew Sweet (eponymous)

Matthew Sweet:  earth

Matthew Sweet:  inside

Don't bother with these.  Though each album has its moments and fierce defenders, none of these represents the sound he found when Girlfriend came around.

Girlfriend

Somehow on this album Matthew managed to link his bittersweet writings to the sounds of the songs in a much more fluent way.  (That is poorly stated, but the gist may be okay.)  The album works the way a well-honed book of poems might, with repeated themes resonating from song to song, keeping the ear at full attention throughout.

Altered Beast

While a certain song (or two) from Girlfriend were still radio staples, Sweet released Altered Beast, which, if I'm not mistaken, produced no hits (though singles were released).  I have at times thought of this album as the "anti-girlfriend."  It is generally darker in tone than its predecessor, but in such a vivid and beautiful way.

Son of Altered Beast

A nice little release (is EP still the operative term?) featuring the gem "Ultrasuede."  If you already have the rest of the albums post-Girlfriend, then you have to get this.  If not, maybe not yet.

100% Fun

This album, upon its release, was absolutely unavoidable.  (Now it is ubiquitous in the used-CD bins.)  Somehow Sweet got slicker and sweeter, and I warn you now that Sweet pulls out all the pop stops here, crafting music that is infectious enough to make you want to hit your head so it'll stop running through your mind when you are away from the stereo.  This album, for me, was a kind of audio-crack.

Blue Sky on Mars

Continuing in the slick pop vein, Blue Sky on Mars represents the end of an arc for Sweet, of which Girlfriend was both the beginning and the high point.  (I know, that doesn't mathematically make sense.  I don't care.)  It seemed as though the formula Sweet had employed might be running a little dry.  And then he released:

In Reverse

I am often chided for preferring so-called "dog" albums to the best-known works by some artists.  For instance, Masque is my favorite by Kansas.  In this case, I defy anyone who digs Matthew Sweet to listen to this album and call it a "dog."  I like it better than Girlfriend.  (Though Girlfriend is still the essential Sweet if you want to be able to talk to anyone about his songs.)

Here Sweet changes tactics a bit, preferring a bit of the ol' Phil Spector "wall of sound."  The results are quite nice, by my reckoning.  The bitter and/or disaffected lyrics still chime up against the sweet pop, but there is a "largeness" to the sound, and a warmth that has not always been around in Sweet's world.  Get the Japanese import version to hear some great demos of the four songs that make up the final cut on the American version.  For my money, this is Sweet's best album.

Kami Suki Ga

I already mentioned this one in another post, but here I will add that this disc is among the industry's opening salvo of "uncopy-able" discs, to the extent that it will not even play on my computer.  I have to listen to it on the stereo instead, and since that rarely happens, this disc has not had the chance to sink in that others were afforded.  (Actually, it goes with me on the road tomorrow.)  In any case, I have not been drawn in by this one yet.

I could go into all the soundtrack work & so forth, but that would get old fast.  Suffice to say, Sweet has been a favorite in Hollywood for over a decade, and you can find him on a lot of soundtracks, including Ace Ventura, Flipper, The Craft, and playing bass for Ming Tea, the band in the Austin Powers movies.

Did I just type all that?

Herring405