Girlfriend
Album Details
Japanese Re-Release Containing Bonus Tracks.Amazon.com
After being dropped from A&M Records thanks to Girlfriend’s rough edges, Matthew Sweet might hardly have expected great commercial success when another label brought the album out toward the end of 1991. But an alternative-welcome climate at rock radio stations, along with undeniably great songs and aggressive lead-guitar work by ex-Voidoid Robert Quine and former Television member Richard Lloyd, made the di… More >>
Girlfriend
Comments
Comment from Anonymous
Time March 20, 2010 at 6:11 am
I’ve noticed that people hand out five star ratings here like sticks of gum . In all my years of buying rock albums I can count the five star stuff on two hands and still have one finger left to tell you what i think of rap music. but I digress, this paticular cd is a competently played piece of pop work, the production is only fair you might as well cross your speaker wires and listen to it in mono. I don’t play this very often, but I wouldn’t throw it out either. If you like hanson you’ll like this but don’t expect some thing on the level of Pet Sounds or Abbey Road, (Legitimate five star cds) Rating: 3 / 5
Comment from myself
Time March 20, 2010 at 6:27 am
Clearly a lot of people love everything about this record, so I’ll try not to be too harsh. First let me say that “Your Sweet Voice,” “Holy War,” and “You Don’t Love Me” are magnificent songs, and “I’ve Been Waiting,” “I Thought I Knew You,” and “Looking at the Sun” are none too shabby either. Your Sweet Voice is one of the most simply beautiful pop songs to ever be written, i’m sure.
That said, I really don’t like the other songs, which are mostly the more rocking ones. “Does She Talk?” is especially bad, with very little melody and a lot of banging guitar. Several others are in the same boat. The lead guitar especially is energetic but inarticulate – if you want to hear the same thing, but done well, look up the album “Prize” by Wanderlust.
All in all, my opinion of “Girlfriend” is that it’s extremely inconsistent, featuring some of the highest peaks and some of the lowest valleys I’ve ever heard together in a single recording. I’d like to praise Mr. Sweet’s record highly, but there are several spots where i just can’t do it in good conscience.
Rating: 3 / 5
Comment from MeMyselfandIggy
Time March 20, 2010 at 7:43 am
This is one of the best cds ever made period. Rating: 5 / 5
Comment from Anonymous
Time March 20, 2010 at 9:21 am
Don’t get me wrong, there are some great songs on this album. Sweet’s feelgood pop riffs sound great for a few songs, but become tedious during the entire 15 song length of this CD. I like Matthew Sweet…in moderation. Rating: 3 / 5
Comment from The New School
Time March 20, 2010 at 3:36 am
I listened to this cd after reading several reviews on Pitchfork that disparaged Oasis. To wit: “Matthew Sweet is the regenerate Beatles imitator truly worthy of our affection.” Hardly. This lo-fi recording is nothing like Oasis, nothing like the “Revolver” or “Rubber Soul”-era imitators from the UK I’ve come to enjoy. Maybe a stab at at later era? Who knows. Christopher Cross? R.E.M.? More likely. In any case, this stuff is tail-end 80s “alternative.” Other bands (that still grasp the new melodic revolution, like Blink and Soundtrack of Our Lives) snatched up the term, much to the disgust of leftover 80s-philes who now give thumbs down to anything that doesn’t remind them of their halcyon college radio days. Pitchfork and co., hubristic reviewers all: get over it. As for the casual reader, do yourself a favor and pick up anything by Canadian band Sloan. Even Teenage Fanclub is better than this. Rating: 2 / 5