After the success that Matthew Sweet had with his album
\nGirlfriend<\/i>, he decided that the retro-’70s sound he had hit
\nthe jackpot with was the way to go. In 1993, Sweet came out with
\nhis fourth album
\nAltered Beast<\/i> which seemed to sum up the situation with the
\nfollowing line: “I’m coming back with my dinosaur act.”<\/p>\n
I remember buying this album when it came out for the song “Time
\nCapsule,” which got pretty good airplay in Chicago at the time. For
\na while, I didn’t take it out of the tape deck of my car. Then,
\nalmost as suddenly as I had gotten into the tape, I forgot about it
\n– and it has been collecting dust in the Pierce Archives all this
\ntime… until now.<\/p>\n
Sweet again assembled a wide array of band members to help
\ncreate the sound he was quickly becoming known for. Richard Lloyd,
\nNicky Hopkins, Ric Menck – even Mick Fleetwood all lend a hand on
\nAltered Beast<\/i>. And while there are some powerful songs on
\nthis album, it doesn’t always capture your attention like Sweet
\nwould have wanted it to.<\/p>\n
In one sense, the pressure was off of Sweet. After two albums
\nthat had failed to attract major attention, he had finally hit the
\ntarget with
\nGirlfriend<\/i>; now, he didn’t have to prove himself with
\nAltered Beast<\/i>. However, people expected him to top
\nGirlfriend<\/i>, so a new dimension of pressure was added to the
\nproject.<\/p>\n
Fortunately, a lot of the material is indeed fresher. Songs like
\n“Devil With The Green Eyes,” “Someone To Pull The Trigger” and
\n“Time Capsule” (I forgot just how damn
\ngood<\/i> this song was) all showcase Sweet’s songwriting talent
\nand the ability of Sweet and his band to create a true mood with
\nthe music. Ballads, too, are no obstacle for Sweet, as he proves on
\n“Life Without You” and “Evergreen”.<\/p>\n
Two different versions of “The Ugly Truth” might seem to be a
\nbit of overkill – especially when one is introed with a snippet
\nfrom the shock-porn film
\nCaligula<\/i> -but there is enough difference in the two versions
\nto keep them interesting.<\/p>\n
The biggest drawback with
\nAltered Beast<\/i> is that the formula Sweet uses in most of his
\nmusic tends to stagnate quickly, and without warning. The bulk of
\nthe first part of the album is great, while a lot of the second
\nside, such as “Falling,” “Do It Again” and “Reaching Out,” fail to
\nhit the mark. The listener, in turn, might find themselves getting
\nrestless at this juncture. It’s still worth checking out, but don’t
\nbe surprised if you find yourself getting distracted near the end
\nof the album.<\/p>\n
So did Sweet top
\nGirlfriend<\/i>? In my mind, yes; this album is far more
\napproachable than
\nGirlfriend<\/i> was, partly because Sweet didn’t have to worry
\nabout whether this would be the album to break him into the
\nmainstream. Partly, too, because his songwriting got a little
\nbetter;
\nAltered Beast<\/i> has a more natural sound to it, and doesn’t
\nfeel like the retro-sound was forced onto the music.<\/p>\n
\nAltered Beast<\/i> is a great place for new fans of Sweet to
\nstart their musical journey into his career, but it also showed
\nsigns that the formula that had brought him success might have been
\nshowing signs of weakening.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27965,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5888],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-39357","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-matthew-sweet","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39357","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=39357"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39357\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=39357"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=39357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}