Matthew Sweet

Matthew Sweet, “Divine Intervention”

When someone says “power pop”, this is the song that pops into my head. I know that there are plenty of other bands that really defined the genre, and that I should be thinking of them. But I don’t. It’s this song.

Juggaknots, “Liar, Liar”

I found the Juggaknots after falling in love with Prince Paul’s A Prince Among Thieves, where Breezly Brewin just kills it. So I went to track down more of his stuff, and sure enough, the Juggaknots also rule.

Negativland, “Announcement”

You know what? We’re trying it again today!

Keep of Kalessin, “Dark Divinity”

Better! WE DID IT, FOLKS

All You Can Eat, “Family Matters”

Long forgotten Bay Area punk band, they put out a couple albums in the early 90s and then disappeared. I’d characterize their sound as, uh, early 90s Bay Area punk. It’s fine, I listened to a ton of these bands at this time and a lot of them were pretty undifferentiated. This band included.

Elvis Costello, “Just a Memory”

The deluxe reissues of Costello’s albums are mostly not worth it. There are some highlights from the bonus material, but you’re just better off listening to the actual album again.

Matthew Sweet, “Looking at the Sun”

This entire album is just so charming. It’s really hard to think about how it might possibly be improved, this is just power pop perfection.

Dead Kennedys, “Kill The Poor”

Now we’re talkin’! Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables is a singular achievement: deeply political, savagely sarcastic, fantastically well-written, and simultaneously both alien and incredibly familiar. It’s one of the albums that really kicked off hardcore, and judging by the kids walking around in Kennedys gear, it still resonates today.

Short and Sweet today. Because it has Matthew Sweet! HAHA! (it’s not very sweet)

Matthew Sweet, “Smog Moon”

Sweet, during his peak period, was a reliably great power pop songwriter. But there were times when he’d kind of tip over into a cheesier territory, and this song is a prime example of that particular beast. You don’t want to evoke Billy Joel’s cornier moments, in general.

Kid Koala, “Pinballer”

This is one of the tunes from Kid Koala’s soundtrack to the video game Floor Kids, because he hasn’t tackled enough media yet. I wish I could say something about the game, but while I bought it, I haven’t tried it yet. I only have so much time, people!

Hey! I think everybody reading this probably knows that I also design games. My most recent game got a glowing review from Shut Up & Sit Down. Pretty neat! Oh, we have music, also.

Unwound, “All Souls Day”

I just kinda want to hug the drums from this song. And then the guitars kick in, and goddamn, you guys, this is what I want in my ears.

Matthew Sweet, “Sick Of Myself”

This is from 100% Fun, his second best album after the magnificent Girlfriend. As with that album, he’s breaking no new ground here at all, but it doesn’t matter when you have just a shamelessly huge pop song like this.

Five Songs International took a break yesterday, which is going to happen occasionally. I’m going to try to never miss two days in a row, but I’m sure that’ll happen as well. But I’m back today with some new tunes!

Ulver, “The Spirits That Lend Strength Are Invisible”

From black metal beginnings, Ulver has wandered around unpredictably among various styles, with seemingly the only thing tying some of them together is a penchant for drama. This piece, from Atgclvlsscap (and yes, I had to cut and paste that), finds the band working in an ambient mode, obviously far away from the black metal thunder of their origins.