History Music / MatthewSweet

* CreatorCameo: [[Music/FleetwoodMac Lindsey Buckingham]] and [[Music/{{Yes}} Steve Howe]] play guitar on Sweet and Susanna Hoffs' covers of "Second Hand News" and "I've Seen All Good People", respectively. Dhani Harrison similarly fills in for his [[AuthorExistenceFailure late]] [[Music/GeorgeHarrison father]] on "Beware of Darkness". Curiously, there's no sign of Richard Lloyd for "[[Music/{{Television}} Marquee Moon]]".

Sidney Matthew Sweet (born 6 October 1964) is a Nebraska-born PowerPop musician who gained some success with the AlternativeRock boom early in TheNineties, tapered off, and instead settled into recording and touring for a devoted fanbase.

Discography:

!Matthew Sweet provides examples of the following tropes:

* CoverVersion: He contributed a cover of "ScoobyDoo, Where Are You?" to the tribute album ''Saturday Morning: Cartoons' Greatest Hits'' (the same album with Music/TheRamones' breakneck cover of "Spider-Man", incidentally).

** TheCoverChangesTheMeaning: "Beware My Love" by Music/{{Wings}} is sung from the viewpoint of a jilted lover warning that his replacement will mistreat the woman he's leaving while the narrator in Sweet's version is an abusive lover apologizing for his misdeeds.
* CreatorBreakdown: ''Girlfriend'', ''Altered Beast'' and even ''100% Fun'', judging by some of the lyrics.

* DreamTeam: Sweet seems to have a talent for getting famous musicians to play on his albums -- aside from the ''Altered Beast'' cast, VanDykeParks guests on ''Living Things'', and ''In Reverse'' also included famous session musicians Jim Keltner on drums and Carol Kaye on bass).

Sweet has a ''huge'' following in [[GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff Japan]], which can be attributed to the fact that he is JustForFun/OneOfUs: the videos for "Girlfriend" and "I've Been Waiting" used clips from ''Manga/SpaceAdventureCobra'' and ''Manga/UruseiYatsura'' before anime became really popular Stateside. ''Kimi Ga Suki'' was originally a Japan-only release as a "thank you" for his fanbase there before unexpected popularity also brought it to the USA.

Beginning to write and record songs as a teenager, Sweet moved to Athens, Georgia to attend college, attracted by the city's alternative music scene. After some stints in Community Trolls, Oh-OK and The Buzz of Delight, he was signed to Creator/ColumbiaRecords in 1985. After his debut ''Inside'' flopped, he was dropped and instead moved to A&M Records, where he made another unsuccessful album, ''Earth''. These albums suffered from severe cases of multiple producers and over-use of synths (with the first being recorded in [[IAmTheBand one-man band mode]]) and received given mixed reviews at best. A&M also gave him the boot after ''Earth'', and he moved to Zoo Entertainment instead.

Matthew Sweet (born 6 October 1964) is a Nebraska-born PowerPop musician who gained some success with the AlternativeRock boom early in TheNineties, tapered off, and instead settled into recording and touring for a devoted fanbase.

Sweet has a ''huge'' following in [[GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff Japan]], which can be attributed to the fact that he is OneOfUs: the videos for "Girlfriend" and "I've Been Waiting" used clips from ''Manga/SpaceAdventureCobra'' and ''Manga/UruseiYatsura'' before anime became really popular Stateside. ''Kimi Ga Suki'' was originally a Japan-only release as a "thank you" for his fanbase there before unexpected popularity also brought it to the USA.

** The audio clip from ''{{Sandbox/Caligula}}'' in the middle of ''Altered Beast'' would also seem to be a sign of this.

* ''Under the Covers'' - {{Cover Album}}s recorded with [[TheBangles Susanna Hoffs]]; the first volume (2006) focused on tracks from TheSixties, the second (2009) from TheSeventies, the third (2013) from TheEighties.

* CoverVersion: He contributed a cover of "ScoobyDoo, Where Are You?" to the tribute album ''Saturday Morning: Cartoons' Greatest Hits'' (the same album with TheRamones' breakneck cover of "Spider-Man", incidentally).

* ReligionRantSong: "Divine Intervention" isn't as angry as {{XTC}}'s "Dear God", but it does pull a HoldingOutForAHero on God (the chorus goes ''We're all counting on his/divine intervention'') and voices doubts about his benevolence (''Now does He love us?/I look around/And all I see is destruction'').

* OneOfUs: Asides from his love of anime and a tattoo of [[UruseiYatsura Lum]], ''Blue Sky on Mars''' title is a ''Film/TotalRecall1990'' reference, "Evangeline" is about the comic of the same name (specifically, it's from the point of view of the character Johnny 6) and ''Altered Beast'' is named after a Sega Mega Drive game.

* CoverAlbum: Two of them.

* DreamTeam: Sweet seems to have a talent for getting famous musicians to play on his albums - asides from the ''Altered Beast'' cast, VanDykeParks guests on ''Living Things'', and ''In Reverse'' also included famous session musicians Jim Keltner on drums and Carol Kaye on bass).

For his followup ''Altered Beast'', Sweet recruited famous guest musicians such as [[FleetwoodMac Mick Fleetwood]], [[ElvisCostello Pete Thomas]], [[Music/BigStar Jody Thomas]], session keyboardist Nicky Hopkins and fiddle player Byron Berline, taking his PowerPop in a more [[NeoclassicalPunkZydecoRockabilly diverse]] direction and supplying DarkerAndEdgier lyrics. Needless to say, this confused his newfound audience and attracted lukewarm reviews. The next album, ''100% Fun'', reduced the band to its key members but otherwise continued with the DarkerAndEdgier direction (the title comes from [[{{Nirvana}} Kurt Cobain's suicide note]], for starters).

* SureWhyNot: "Girlfriend" was originally named "Goodfriend", but Sweet changed the title after people misheard the lyric. Notably, both "girlfriend" and "good friend" are present in the song's lyrics.

* ''Under the Covers'' - {{Cover Album}}s recorded with [[TheBangles Susanna Hoffs]]; the first volume (2006) focused on tracks from TheSixties, the second (2009) from TheSeventies

Beginning to write and record songs as a teenager, Sweet moved to Athens, Georgia to attend college, attracted by the city's alternative music scene. After some stints in Community Trolls, Oh-OK and The Buzz of Delight, he was signed to Columbia Records in 1985. After his debut ''Inside'' flopped, he was dropped and instead moved to A&M Records, where he made another unsuccessful album, ''Earth''. These albums suffered from severe cases of multiple producers and over-use of synths (with the first being recorded in [[IAmTheBand one-man band mode]]) and received given mixed reviews at best. A&M also gave him the boot after ''Earth'', and he moved to Zoo Entertainment instead.

* AndTheFandomRejoiced: Not just the fandom - Sweet's self-imposed speed in writing ''Kimi Ga Suki'' and reunion with Richard Lloyd resulted in one of his better-received albums in a while.

Sweet has a ''huge'' following in [[GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff Japan]], which can be attributed to the fact that he is OneOfUs: the videos for "Girlfriend" and "I've Been Waiting" used clips from ''SpaceAdventureCobra'' and ''UruseiYatsura'' before anime became really popular Stateside. ''Kimi Ga Suki'' was originally a Japan-only release as a "thank you" for his fanbase there before unexpected popularity also brought it to the USA.

* OneOfUs: Asides from his love of anime and a tattoo of [[UruseiYatsura Lum]], ''Blue Sky on Mars''' title is a ''TotalRecall'' reference, "Evangeline" is about the comic of the same name (specifically, it's from the point of view of the character Johnny 6) and ''Altered Beast'' is named after a Sega Mega Drive game.

* OneOfUs: Asides from his love of anime and a tattoo of [[UruseiYatsura Lum]], ''Blue Sky on Mars''' title is a ''TotalRecall'' reference and ''Altered Beast'' is named after a Sega Mega Drive game.