Matthew Sweet, Sunshine Lies
Ho hum, more jangly gems from power pop's most consistent tunesmith.
Matthew Sweet's 10th album isn't exactly innovative, but it is what this Los Angeles-based musical conservationist does best — '60s-rooted folk-rock sounds revived with an urgency that transcends tradition. Whether he redirected romantic sorrows a la 1990's breakthrough Girlfriend (certainly his cathartic “Room to Rock” here suggests that scenario) or simply craved another hit, Sunshine Lies'familiar boy-loses-girl scenarios take on an existential howl as thick slabs of guitars slam and slash power pop's expected jangle.
As proven by his 2006 covers album with ex-Bangle Susanna Hoffs, the curatorial side of Sweet's classicism sometimes gives his music a dusty, museum-like air. Yet this same discerning taste in collaborators allows the musicians he's culled from adventurous bands like Television and Richard Hell & the Voidoids to take risks here. Girlfriend alumni Richard Lloyd, Ivan Julian, Greg Leisz, and Ric Menck once again contribute performances simultaneously primal and polished. So does Sweet: Witness his stinging 12-string guitar ringing in the left channel throughout a mostly self-performed “Daisychain.” Yet their flash isn't simply for show. As suggested by its title, Sunshine Lies takes the darkness hidden in the soul of sunny Byrds-inspired L.A. rock and brings it to the surface in all its well-played but deeply conflicted glory.
