Review by LarryG
3½ stars out of 4
Since 1991, when he put out his great Girlfriend record,
Matthew Sweet has been one of the best creators of fun garage rock.
He's unashamed to show his love for the Beatles and 60's pop. On In
Reverse, Sweet has worked hard to make his best record since
Girlfriend, carefully and brilliantly constructing songs that, like
the work of his heroes the Beach Boys and Beatles, combine an innocent
love of pop and intelligent, careful songcraft. The songs have a
classic simplicity and quality. In Reverse starts with Millennium
Blues. Sweet sings of being half in one millenium and half in the
other. He's mostly still in the last one, specifically the 60's, but
the part he borrows is the forward looking psychedelic rock of
Revolver songs like She Said, She Said and Tomorrow Never Knows.
Millennium Blues, with its opening horn fanfare, trippy tape loops and
great big beat supplied by Ric Menck's drums, captures the excitement
of those songs. Once the song has made its point it seamlessly segues,
Abbey Road style, into If Time Permits, a very nice Beach Boys type
ballad. Sweet's voice is pleasant but it can be a little too sweet. He
never leaves it too exposed though, adding layers of instruments and
his own blue eyed soul harmonies. Time Permits creates a rich
atmosphere with multiple musicians playing keyboards and percussion.
Sweet has always surrounded himself with strong musicians. Pete
Phillips provides a nice psychedelic guitar fill which links Time
Permits to the similar Beware My Love. In Reverse was clearly a labor
of love. Four of the songs have at least 14 musicians and all
contribute to a rich sound. I Should Never Have Let You Know is
another song with a pop charm and full sound reminiscent of the Beach
Boys' Pet Sounds. The elegant, classic sound is partly created by
instruments like a harpsicord. A theremin, which is on many songs,
adds a good, retro edge.
What Matters, In Reverse's single, is a great, catchy poppy
rocker, given a nice edge. The title of In Reverse partially alludes
to Sweet's use of Beatles style tracks of instruments with the tapes
played backwards. Among the guitar sounds on What Matters are cool
Byrdsy 12 strings, some of which are played backwards. Sweet links
What Matters to Write Your Own Song, a fairly nasty rebuke of someone
criticizing his work. The music creates the feeling that Sweet is
gleeful about getting something off his chest. The song has the
exhilarating energy of a Exile on Main Street rocker with John Ginty's
rollicking piano. In Reverse has two scorching rockers that are
reminiscent of the title track from Girlfriend. Faith in You is a
simple, straight ahead rocker. Sweet sings of not being a man of faith
but finding that his love might be something to believe in. Split
Personality is exciting musically but a little too stupid and
repetitious. In my mind, nearly everything on In Reverse works.
Ballads aren't really Sweet's strength but the ones here generally
work. Hide is a nice, sincere regretful song about a couple, both of
whom are too quick to run when there are problems and too afraid to
show their flaws. It's a touching song, simply built around Sweet's
piano, like 100% Fun's I Almost Forgot. Worse to Live has a similar
theme to REM's Everybody Hurts. Mournful horns and Sweet's empathetic
vocals make Sweet's song showing support for a friend in distress
heartbreaking. Thunderstorm, which closes In Reverse, is perhaps a
touch too ambitious in trying to create a multipart suite but it's
still interesting and tuneful with a 60's feeling of searching.
Since Girlfriend, Matthew Sweet has made a number of good
records, especially his last one Blue Sky On Mars, which had a lot of
good rockers. Still, In Reverse is Sweet's best since Girlfriend. It
doesn't rock as hard as Girlfriend but it might have an even higher
percentage of good songs and it has that great, sumptuous sound.
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