Search - Matthew Sweet :: Blue Sky on Mars

Am I the only one?

Ed Wilberding | Hooper, NE, USA | 07/22/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I've read the reviews of this CD, and disagree with many of them. Sweet has set the bar so high, it just isn't going to happen to recreate Girlfriend, so forget about it. That doesn't mean that he can't still put out damn fine music, which he has with Blue Sky On Mars. No one has mentioned my favorite song of ALL TIME: "Behind the Smile". How many of us haven't been a good friend when we should have been, like when we review great music? Buy this CD and enjoy it!"

Disappointing . . . but the highs make it worth owning

08/18/1999

(3 out of 5 stars)

"I agree with the writer below that too many artists currently pad out their CDs with filler simply because the space is there. BUT--it is hard not to feel as though the shrinking running-times of Sweet's records (and their increasingly hit-or-miss songwriting) establish a kind of quantity/quality correspondence. What's next, a techno EP with only one good song? *100% Fun* earns its brevity with sublime writing (it's a bit saggy in the middle, but everything kicks in eventually). With *Blue Sky,* though, it begins to seem as though the bitter weirdness that fueled Sweet's early-90s work has soured into a lack of regard for his audience. Even when he writes a killer hook--"All Over My Head"--he can scarcely be bothered to flesh it out into a song, and the absence of either R. Lloyd or R. Quine in the lead guitar role throws the track into a holding pattern when it should be taking off. In a lesser artist, such modesty wouldn't rankle, but Sweet is clearly more gifted (to say nothing of prolific) than he has recently been allowing. On the whole, this is a real head-in-the-sand effort, worth getting (for fans) for its 3 or 4 great tunes. But one certainly hopes that the bile of indifference will have subsided by the time Sweet next enters the studio."

Not Sweet enough

03/10/1999

(3 out of 5 stars)

"This record starts out pretty well with "Come To California", the straightforward "Back To You" and the powerhouse "Where You Get Love" with its irresistible roaring outro, but those were the only tracks I could remember when I've heard it through. Still, there are some nifty melodies scattered around. If you look well enough, maybe someday you will find them. And: I think it is a good thing that this album does not last longer than 40 minutes. There are enough of those which drag on far too long..."