I am five minutes removed from
watching the hated Montreal Canadiens knock my beloved Bruins out of the
playoffs. It doesn’t get any lower than this.
Disc 620 is…. Girlfriend
Artist: Matthew
Sweet
Year of Release: 1991
What’s up with the Cover? It’s a picture of
actress Tuesday Weld, looking both glamorous and approachable. Tuesday Weld is
a great name for a silver screen heartthrob, and a beautiful girl despite
apparently not having a neck.
How I Came To Know It: Yet another album introduced to me by my old
roommate Greg, which I later bought for myself. Thanks, Greg!
How It Stacks Up: Matthew Sweet has quietly released thirteen albums
over almost thirty years. I’ve only got this one, so can’t really stack it up
against the others.
Rating: 2 stars but almost 3
It is
fitting I should get an album like “Girlfriend” today. With all its moroseness and self-doubt it suits
my current frame of mind well. On second thought, it is probably not quite murderous
enough.
“Girlfriend”
is Matthew Sweet’s third album, and the only one that I can remember ever
making a splash. The title track was a moderate hit on the alternative scene
probably because of its reverb and layered sound, which while not itself grunge,
made a nice complement to that scene. I didn’t love “Girlfriend” the song, finding it busy in places, and even a bit
boring. Fortunately my buddy Greg bought the album, which allowed me to get to
know the deeper cuts, and they won me over.
The
opening track on the album, “Divine
Intervention” is my favourite with an opening sting of guitar feedback and
then a reverberating riff that is both groovy and wistful. “Divine Intervention” is a song about
being down and out and not knowing if you’re going to ever get out of it. You
want to fall back on the notion that the universe has a plan for you, but deep
down you know it doesn’t.
When I
first heard this song, I was twenty-two or twenty-three years old. I was
recovering from a broken heart, carrying the debt of a university education,
and working a minimum wage warehouse job to try to pay it off. It wasn’t a
great time, but it sure made the song resonate. I’m now solvent, with a good
job and a good woman, but this song can always bring me back to what it feels
like to not know your way, or even if there is a way, so I give it credit for
that.
The
problem with “Girlfriend” as an album is that it can take all this cryin’ and
moanin’ a bit too far, and come out pathetic. “Divine Intervention” holds up alright, but weaker tracks really
come off as the gripes of a pale and wan poet who needs to get more sun.
“Thought
I Knew You” and “You Don’t Love Me”
are every bit as maudlin and passive aggressive as their titles would suggest. “You Don’t Love Me” is particularly bad,
with lines like:
“Cause you don’t love me
You don’t love me
You can’t see how much I matter
in this world
Even though I loved you
You can’t believe that
If you find something
You think might make you happy
Then I guess it’s okay, I think
it’s okay.”
Jeesh.
At least be honestly angry about the situation, Matthew. Take some advice from
Sir John Suckling, “if looking well can’t
move her/ looking ill prevail?” (hint: the answer is ‘no’).
Despite
this tendency to push the self-pity button a bit too hard, Sweet’s songwriting
has many moments when it rises above. “Nothing
Lasts” is equally sad but the song is of sufficient quality that you enjoy
a bit of a wallow.
“Winona” and “Evangeline” are two pretty little romantic numbers as well. “Winona” (reportedly named for 1991
it-girl Winona Ryder), is a little sad, but it feels more emotionally honest
than it does manipulative. The tune has an innovative use of the pedal steel
guitar while remaining at its core, a rock song.
“Evangeline” is a variation on the “Only the Good Die Young” theme of
self-righteous moralistic girls that could really do with a fun night out. “Evangeline” also captures the early
guitar groove of “Divine Intervention”
and lifts up the middle section of the record at just the right time.
The
album is too long, with fifteen songs (at least one too many) and many of the
songs linger for a few bars longer than they need to. If you pick and choose
your spots there are quite a few good tracks worth your time, however.
I also
found myself thinking that “Girlfriend” is a precursor to the indie music (back
then, we called it alternative). It takes pretty basic musical concepts and
reinterprets them in a modern (for its time) way – something indie does now. In
some respects it is superior to indie music, because despite it being a bit moan-y,
at least it doesn’t try to detach itself from its own emotional core.
I don’t
put this record on very often (partly because Sheila doesn’t like it) but I
still enjoyed this visit, and more than a few of the songs that came with it.
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