Tag Archives: Power Pop

I NEED DIRECTION

July 6, 2019 · by · in A PERSONAL APPROACH, ACROSS THE DECADES, ALBUM FOCUS, e) Naughts [2000 - 2009], Memoir with Music, Particular platters · 13 Comments

A Catholic Education Bandwagonesque Thirteen Grand Prix Songs From Northern Britain Howdy! The millennial year was a challenging one. Having formed a strong and passionate connection with a new partner, I was dismayed to hear that she was decamping to her English homeland for an indeterminate period. This was not my fantasy of how the […]

TOMORROW AND TOMORROW

January 25, 2019 · by · in ACROSS THE DECADES, ALBUM FOCUS, ART AND ABOUT, Cover Art, f) Tens [2010 - ], Particular platters · 26 Comments

Prior to 2017’s Tomorrow Forever, the last Matthew Sweet album of original material was 2011’s Modern Art. In between was the third volume of Under The Covers, the charming series recorded by Sweet and ex-Bangle Susanna Hoffs. Matthew Sweet’s personal circumstances had changed considerably in the intervening years: he re-located away from Los Angeles to […]

GOODGIRLFRIEND

August 28, 2016 · by · in ACROSS THE DECADES, ALBUM FOCUS, d) Nineties [1990 - 1999], Particular platters · 16 Comments

After extensively shopping around the demos for his third album, Matthew Sweet finally landed a deal with Zoo, who released Girlfriend in 1991. It’s fine songcraft, scintillating guitars from Television’s Richard Lloyd and Lou Reed alumnus Robert Quine—now chiming, now gouging—and deep understanding of pop music forms made it an underground success that poked its nose […]

DIGGING THE AGE OF PLASTIC

September 6, 2014 · by · in b) Seventies [1970 - 1979], c) Eighties [1980 - 1989], Memoir with Music, Records, Vinyl Hunter Gatherer Stories · 21 Comments

Last Sunday, bright and early, I packed the car with six crates of records, a box of CDs, another of 45s and a sandwich and drove off to the Box Hill Record Fair. It’s something I’ve been doing fairly regularly for quite a while. About fifteen years in fact. This realization made the sunny morning […]

SIX SHOOTER ROULETTE

August 15, 2014 · by · in b) Seventies [1970 - 1979], d) Nineties [1990 - 1999], ODDS & SODS, Vinyl Hunter Gatherer Stories · 16 Comments

It’s been a busy week, with insufficient listening time and few spaces to think of an idea for the weekly Vinyl Connection post. Yet business did not preclude LP acquisition. On the pretext of needing exercise during a break in the sedentary working day, I went on a brisk 20 minute walk to Goldmine Records. And […]

SWEET MARS LANDING

February 7, 2014 · by · in d) Nineties [1990 - 1999], Particular platters, Records · 26 Comments

Like a lot of things in life, I came late to the edgy melancholic jangle-pop world of Matthew Sweet. Stumbled across the album after the one that got him known and worked backwards to fill in the history. But although I’m slow, I’m loyal, and we have gone forward resolutely together to the extent that […]

HERE IS A SUNRISE. AIN’T THAT ENOUGH? [Power Pop!]

September 6, 2013 · by · in b) Seventies [1970 - 1979], c) Eighties [1980 - 1989], d) Nineties [1990 - 1999], e) Naughts [2000 - 2009], Memoir with Music · 13 Comments

“JANGLY CHORD-RICH GUITAR ROCK WITH TIGHT HARMONIES OFF-BEAT LYRICS SING-ALONG CHORUSES AND A MIDDLE EIGHT TO DIE FOR (PERHAPS)” Sometimes you just happen to be in the right newsagent at the right time. So it was deep into the yuletide season of 1993. Hunting for a clutch of Christmas cards and hoping that there was […]