If Matthew Sweet wasn’t recognized as an artist with his first
\ntwo solo albums, then his works like
\nGirlfriend<\/i> and
\nAltered Beast<\/i> set the record straight for a lot of people.
\nTracks like “Girlfriend,” “Time Capsule” and “Devil With The Green
\nEyes” got significant alternative radio attention – though,
\nstrangely, his first two albums have still been ignored. (I’ll
\nfreely admit I have yet to buy them – hey,
\n
\nyou<\/i>
\n<\/b> try running this on a budget of zero!)<\/p>\n
Whether
\nSon Of Altered Beast<\/i> was meant to be a stop-gap until Sweet
\ncould deliver the next full-length album or was supposed to be a
\nthank-you release for the fans is a moot point. What this
\nseven-song EP does is re-affirm Sweet’s power as a songwriter and
\nas a performer.<\/p>\n
The one previously released track, “Devil With The Green Eyes,”
\nis still a great song, though I honestly can’t tell much of a
\ndifference between the original version and this “remix”. It also
\nhas been some time since I dug
\nAltered Beast<\/i> out of the Pierce Memorial Archives, so I’ll
\ngladly plead a little ignorance on this part. The interchange of
\nSweet’s vocals and rhythm guitar lines with the solo work of Robert
\nQuine is what captures this track for me. (Also not to be taken
\nlightly is Sweet’s bass work.)<\/p>\n
The only other studio track on Son Of Altered Beast,
\n“Ultrasuede,” is a song that is a lot of fun to listen to, but is
\nalso one that honestly wouldn’t have fit in with the mood that made
\nup
\nAltered Beast<\/i>. Maybe it would have made the cut on
\nGirlfriend<\/i>, but that’s just speculation. It’s not the
\ngreatest track that Sweet has written and performed, but it’s
\nhardly one that deserved to stay in the can.<\/p>\n
The remainder of
\nSon Of Altered Beast<\/i> shows the power of Sweet’s live shows,
\nwith tracks taken from San Juan Capistrano and Washington, DC.
\n“Superdeformed” is performed so well, I wouldn’t have thought it
\nwas a live track until I heard the crowd noise at the end of the
\ntrack. Also deserving of your attention are “I Wanted To Tell You”
\nand “Knowing People”.<\/p>\n
“Don’t Cry No Tears” is an okay track, but is not one I would
\nrank as a must-include on a live album. (I would have been more
\ninterested to hear a live version of “Time Capsule”, to be honest.)
\nThe other track, “Someone To Pull The Trigger,” is a surprise
\ninclusion, as it is a more plodding, dark track that seems to sap
\nthe energy from the moment. Had it been put later on the album, it
\nmight have been more memorable; but to have it follow two strong
\ntracks, it tends to do the tape an injustice.<\/p>\n
\nSon Of Altered Beast<\/i> is one of those albums that can be
\ncalled a “for diehard fans only” release; it enhances Sweet’s
\ndiscography rather than bulks it up. But if you even mildly enjoyed
\nSweet’s work up to that point in his career, then adding
\nSon Of Altered Beast<\/i> to your collection is a pretty good
\nmove.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27416,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5888],"rating":[5612],"class_list":["post-38782","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-matthew-sweet","rating-rating-b-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38782","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38782"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38782\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27416"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38782"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}