On his new album Altered Beast, Matthew Sweet explores the thin line between man and animal, heaven and earth, love and hate, success and failure with an acerbic wit, a razor-sharp pop edge and a renewed perspective. For it was just two years ago that his album Girlfriend was passed on by every record label on the planet, ending up on Zoo Entertainment only because the president of the company happened to hear his A&R chief playing it in the office one day...after the label had already turned it down once.
The rest, of course, is one of the more satisfying record industry success stories in recent memory, as the third time proved the charm for the Lincoln, Nebraska native. After two previous critically praised albums, Inside (Columbia '86) and Earth (A&M '89), sandwiched around a stint with underground darlings the Golden Palominos, Sweet finally broke through with the release of Girlfriend, which garnered massive college, alternative and album radio acceptance (and not inconsiderable video play) on its way to selling more than 400,000 copies.
"I think it was a good thing to happen to me," Sweet says of the struggle to have Girlfriend released. "It forced me to come to terms with my feelings about why I did music, what my motives were. By the time the album came out and happened, I had been so down through the depths, I had my heart in the right place as far as doing the music went. I expected absolutely nothing. Just getting the record released was a triumph. When it took off, it took me - and everybody else - by surprise."
With Altered Beast, Sweet won't have that same element of surprise working for him, and he's perfectly aware of that. He's brought along many of the same musicians from the Girlfriend album and subsequent tour: ace guitarists Richard Lloyd (Television), Robert Quine (Lou Reed, Richard Hell) and Ivan Julian (also in Hell's Voidoids); drummers Ric Menck (Velvet Crush), Fred Maher (co-producer of Girlfriend) and Ron Pangborn (Was (Not Was)); and pedal steel/dobro player Greg Leisz (k.d. lang's Reclines). He's also added such new talents as lengendary piano player Nicky Hopkins (Beatles, Rolling Stones, John Lennon), fiddle player Byron Berline (the Flying Burrito Brothers) and drummers Pete Thomas (Elvis Costello's Attractions), Mick Fleetwood and Jody Stevens (Big Star).
Working from very comprehensive demos, Sweet says he was intent not to do Girlfriend II. To get the sound he had in mind, he enlisted Richard Dashut (producer of Fleetwood Mac's Rumours and Tusk - one of Matthew's all-time favorites - as well as Lindsey Buckingham's solo albums), as his co-producer.
"Richard understood theoretically where I wanted to go, that I wanted to push the edge of what was acceptable, noise-wise and mistake-wise," says Sweet. "In a way, that's what he and Lindsey did during Tusk, and took a lot of flak for it."
Matthew organic approach to recording was much more direct and spontaneous than that which the normally meticulous Dashut had been using recently.
"It was a very high-energy, enlightening experience," says Dashut about the album sessions. "We picked up a great deal from one another. I learned a lot from Matthew about treating music from the gut and presenting it in a more honest fashion, with a little less production and a little more heart. We didn't get so hung up on the technical side of things as I did with Fleetwood Mac."
Named in part after the Sega video game featuring a human/monster who must continually evolve to defeat various demons and ghouls, Altered Beast could well be subtitled "The Sky Above, the Mud Below" in its progression from the primodial metal ooze of "Dinosaur Act" clear through to the soaring, ethreal transcendence of such set-piece ballads as "Life Without You," "Reaching Out," and "Evergreen." Like Girlfriend, there are moments of painful self-revelation, but unlike that record, Sweet has turned his sights inward by trying on a variety of guises, such as the wolf in sheep's clothing in the lush, psychedelic pop-rock of "Devil With the Green Eyes," a guy who just wants to be left alone in "Knowing People" and the fretful romantic who's afraid to spill his guts emotionally in the Blonde on Blonde-ish "Someone to Pull the Trigger."
"It's all about changing shape," says Sweet. "One of the hard thigs for me about Girlfriend was everyone wanted to take each song and have it literally be about something in my life. With this record, I continued to ignore that and be as weird as I wanted, so that people would have to realize that in my songs I could be anyone. I was purposely more vague this time, but when I get personal, I get really personal. On this record I fight more battles with myself than I do with other people."
Musically, Altered Beast touches on many of the subtle influences from Sweet's personal musical pantheon. There's the touch of Buffalo Springfield's "Mr. Soul" in "Ugly Truth Rock," a taste of the instrumental sparseness of Television admist the poppy Mac-like feel of "Time Capsule," the Beatlesque harmonies laced through the exquisite "Life Without You," a midwestern Everlys twang to "Do It Again," a Stonesy blues riff running through "In Too Deep" and a Neil Young & Crazy Horse crunch to "Falling." Like one of his heroes, Brian Wilson, Matthew Sweet has been called a pop alchemist for melding various musical branches into something that is both a tribute to his roots and something completely original.
While one can still spot the lovelorn troubedour of Girlfriend among the dark sentiments and metaphysical concerns of Altered Beast, Sweet concludes the album with a verifiable leap of spiritual faith on "Evergreen," a naked expression of his own belief that "there's no difference/between the earth and the sky..."
"You have to find heaven within yourself," he says. "There's no reason, and you're going to die. And the real problem is, no one can face up to that truth. If we could, maybe things would be different between people."
Pretty heavy sentiments for a pop-rock album, but these harsh truths are cloaked in surfaces that are so seductive and alluring, they make life on this earth just a little easier to bear - unlike Sweet's own life in the wake of his newfound success.
"I found out I had breaking points I never knew I had," he says of the ensuing presure. "Other people are working hard around you, and either you're in for it or you're not. At this point, I guess I have to go for it." But be careful what you wish for...
"The most I hope for is surviving. I'm just trying to do records I would enjoy myself. I just want to keep the music honest enought that it will show no matter what you get, you'll be happy half the time and unhappy half the time - if you're lucky."
Countless adjectives could be used to describe Matthew Sweet's new seven-song EP, Son of Altered Beast: soulful, sincere, psychedelic, organic, tuneful and insightful being just a few of the terms that immediately spring to mind. But the most appropriate description is supplied by Sweet himself. As he sings on the sinewy "Knowing People," Son of Altered Beast could be characterized as "an animal filled with love and hate."
An odds-and-ends collection of remixes, live performances and studio outtakes, Son of Altered Beast (Son of A Beast for short) is a bonanza for Sweet fans. At the dark heart of this three-horned musical mutant is a remix of "Devil With the Green Eyes," pulled off with characteristic brilliance by producer/engineer/mixer Brendan O'Brien (Pearl Jam, Stone Temple Pilots, Soundgarden). Also included are emotional live performances of Sweet favorites "Someone to Pull the Trigger," "Superdeformed," "Knowing People," and "I Wanted To Tell You," along with Neil Young's "Don't Cry No Tears" (a favorite encore tune). Rounding out the EP is "Ultrasuede," an outtake from Sweet's critically acclaimed Altered Beast album. Previously available only on the "The Ugly Truth" cd5, "Ultrasuede" is receiving radio airplay in several markets.
"I always looked at Altered Beast as sort of a horror record," Sweet says. "One cool thing about doing the EP was that it gave me a chance to revisit that theme. Live, the songs all tend to sound scarier."
Son of Altered Beast kicks off with O'Brien's remix of "Devil With the Green Eyes," Sweet admits he didn't know what to expect from O'Brien, he only knew he liked the producer/engineer's work on records by the Red Hot Chili Peppers, the Jayhawks and King's X. The remix proved to be everything Sweet had hoped for.
"I found his remix to be really musical," Sweet says. "Engineer's usually tend to be more sensitive to the sounds instead of the musicality of a song. But Brendan is just as much into songs as he is into sounds. He was eager to take the same risks I'd take."
The live tracks featured on the EP document the evocative power of Sweet's voice, songs and backing band. That intensity is testament not only to Sweet's writing but to the strength of his touring band. Together for his 1993 and 1994 tours, former Television guitarist Richard Lloyd, ex Cruzados/Dylan bassist Tony Marsico and former dB's drummer Will Rigby (k.d. lang pedal steel player Greg Leisz makes a cameo appearance on "Someone to Pull the Trigger") combine their talents with Sweet's own manic rhythm guitar and plaintive vocals. These are the ingredients for a potent musical brew.
"This band tends to get a tension going when it plays," Sweet explained. "The way Richard plays lead guitar is freaky - he's a really amazing player. Personally, I like to bang away on loud rhythm guitar, so it's a raunchy sound. I've always really liked that edgy, uptight feeling."
Hailing from Lincoln, Nebraska, Sweet has been bringing his brand of "edgy, uptight" pop to audiences worldwide since the mid-'80s. He emerged in 1986 with Inside (Columbia), which was followed by Earth (A&M, 1989). Both albums earned critical praise but failed to win a sizable audience. He enjoyed a brief stint with the Golden Palominos, but it was in 1991 that he broke through with a vengenance, with his Zoo Entertainment debut albums, Girlfriend. The album was enthusiastically received by critics, radio listeners, and MTV viewers, and spawned a year-long tour in support of the record.
Recorded in early 1993, Altered Beast was the flipside of the singer's sweeter, introspective Girlfriend. Looking at the metamorphoses of the not-so-perfect human state, the album once again was met with open arms by radio, press and retail. Since the July 1993 release, Sweet's been touring hard, headlining major events such as WXRT's Fourth of July Festival and the WHFSival in Washington, D.C., as well as touring throughout the U.S., Europe and Australia. All in all he's performed to more than 500,000 people, and the spring of 1994 continues to enlarge that number by way of a nationwide tour with Melissa Etheridge.
Given his penchant for hitting the road, it's fitting that Son of Altered Beast should so viscerally reflect the savage beauty of Sweet's live performances. Recorded mostly at Washington D.C.'s 9:30 Club in mid-January, the live performances, sandwiched by the remix of "Devil With the Green Eyes" and the hooky "Ultrasuede," make Son of Altered Beast a lovely rough gem of a record.
"I'm not interested in creating a perfect sounding or finely crafted record. I'd rather do something that's raw and real," Sweet says. Listening to Son of Altered Beast, you'll no doubt agree the singer has accomplished his none-too-modest goal.