Matthew Sweet - Blue Sky On Mars / In Reverse

(This review first appeared in issue #88 of Shindig! magazine.)


Two albums of guitar-driven powerpop brought together as a double CD set. 1997's Blue Sky On Mars and 1999's In Reverse both have a sound and production that stands up well today. Sweet was one of the musicians in the '90s who studied Big Star, Brum-beat and Brit-invasion as core texts, making it his mission to re-present melody and melancholia to an audience raised on grunge. That said the contemporaneous influence of Nirvana pushes through on 'Where You Get Love' and 'Hollow'.

The use of synths gives Blue Sky On Mars a lightly futuristic edge and In Reverse is fleshed out with some nice touches – the trumpet peels on 'Millennium Blues' for one. Sweet's ability to write earworm tunes is in evidence throughout as is his sensitivity with the themes of fractured friendship and love's ever-elusive nature. The lack of filler and tracks to cash ratio here makes this a particularly sweet deal.