Girlfriend (album)

Girlfriend
Studio album by Matthew Sweet
Released October 22, 1991
Recorded 1990
Studio Axis Studios, New York City
Genre Alternative rock, power pop[1][2]
Length 60:19
Label Zoo
Producer Fred Maher, Matthew Sweet
Matthew Sweet chronology
Earth
(1989)		 Girlfriend
(1991)		 Altered Beast
(1993)
Music sample
"Evangeline"
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[3]
Chicago Tribune[4]
Encyclopedia of Popular Music[5]
Entertainment WeeklyA[6]
Q[7]
Rolling Stone[8]
Select4/5[9]
Slant Magazine[10]
Spin Alternative Record Guide9/10[11]
The Village VoiceA–[12]

Girlfriend is the third studio album by American alternative rock musician Matthew Sweet. It was released on Zoo Entertainment in 1991.

The album was included as number 61 on Paste's list of "The 90 Best Albums of the 1990s."[2]

Recording

Recorded in 1990 following Sweet's divorce, he later said to Rolling Stone, "It's funny how the album ended up showing everything I needed to feel. Everything I needed as an antidote is there."[13] He told Entertainment Weekly, "People say, 'This is your big breakup record - will you still be able to write good songs?' I'm sure I'll be just as depressed at some other point in my life."[14]

Overview

The cover of the album features a photograph of actress Tuesday Weld from the late 1950s.[15] Originally called Nothing Lasts,[15] the album was retitled following objections to the title from Weld.[16]

The music video for the title track (which aired on heavy rotation on MTV, MuchMusic and Night Tracks) featured clips from the anime film, Space Adventure Cobra, while the video for another one of the album's singles, "I've Been Waiting", used clips of the Urusei Yatsura character, Lum Invader.

The tracks, "Evangeline" and "Your Sweet Voice", were both followed by the sound of a vinyl outgroove and a phonograph needle lifting off of a record, which was meant to signify the end of each side of the album as though it were an LP (thus making the final three songs on the album to be, conceptually, considered bonus tracks). The song, "Winona", was named after (but not about) actress Winona Ryder,[15] while the aforementioned song, "Evangeline", is sung from the point of view of Johnny Six from the comic book, Evangeline.

Release

Released in October 1991, Girlfriend is Sweet's most commercially and critically successful album to date, with AV Club labeling it the best power pop album of the 1990s.[1] The album peaked at #100 on the Billboard 200 album chart.[17] The Village Voice, on their Pazz & Jop critics' poll, listed Girlfriend as the #7 best album of 1991.[18] The title track hit #4 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart and #10 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart. "Divine Intervention" hit #23 on the Modern Rock chart.[19]

In 2006, the album was remastered and released under the "Legacy Edition" label,[20] with three bonus tracks (originally released on the "Girlfriend" single, subtitled "the superdeformed CD", and also available on the Japanese version of the album), plus a second disc of home demos, live versions and session recordings called Goodfriend. Subtitled "Another Take On 'Girlfriend'", Goodfriend was a promotional CD partly distributed through Sweet's fan club, and was not commercially released until the Legacy Edition.[21] 'Goodfriend' was the original name of the title track, but after early listeners universally misheard the lyric, Sweet changed the title to "Girlfriend."

In 2014, this album got a vinyl release on the Plain Recordings label. The single 12" vinyl disc featured the first 12 songs; 6 songs on each side. The vinyl sound effects were not added like they were on the CD; presumably you can provide your own as you play this LP.

Theatrical production

A theatrical production entitled Girlfriend, inspired by Sweet's album, debuted in 2010 at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre in Berkeley, CA.[22] The play was written by Todd Almond with songs from the album Girlfriend as well as subsequent Matthew Sweet albums.[23][24]

Track listing

All songs written by Matthew Sweet.

  1. "Divine Intervention" – 5:37
  2. "I've Been Waiting" – 3:36
  3. "Girlfriend" – 3:40
  4. "Looking at the Sun" – 4:16
  5. "Winona" – 4:59
  6. "Evangeline" – 4:45
  7. "Day for Night" – 2:55
  8. "Thought I Knew You" – 2:57
  9. "You Don't Love Me" – 5:21
  10. "I Wanted to Tell You" – 4:30
  11. "Don't Go" – 3:24
  12. "Your Sweet Voice" – 3:54
  13. "Does She Talk?" – 3:27
  14. "Holy War" – 3:25
  15. "Nothing Lasts" – 3:33

Legacy Edition bonus tracks

  1. "Good Friend" (demo) - 3:36
  2. "Superdeformed" (demo) - 4:09
  3. "Teenage Female" (demo) - 3:54

Track listing for Goodfriend

All songs written by Matthew Sweet, except where noted.

Goodfriend promotional album cover
  1. "Divine Intervention" (acoustic) – 3:05
  2. "Girlfriend" – 2:52
  3. "Day for Night" (live) – 3:21
  4. "Thought I Knew You" (live) – 3:57
  5. "Looking at the Sun" (acoustic) – 4:15
  6. "Does She Talk?" (live) – 4:23
  7. "You Don't Love Me" (live) – 6:47
  8. "Someone to Pull the Trigger" – 3:53
  9. "I've Been Waiting" (live) – 3:45
  10. "Winona" (acoustic) – 4:30
  11. "Girlfriend" (live) – 4:05
  12. "Cortez the Killer" (live) (Neil Young) – 6:28
  13. "Isolation" (acoustic) (John Lennon) – 3:01

Personnel

Additional personnel

References

  1. 1 2 Power Pop. By Noel Murray. AV Club. Published March 19, 2009.
  2. 1 2 Jackson, Josh (February 24, 2012). "The 90 Best Albums of the 1990s". Paste. Retrieved November 28, 2015.
  3. ↑ Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Girlfriend – Matthew Sweet". AllMusic. Retrieved November 26, 2015.
  4. ↑ Rothschild, David (November 7, 1991). "Matthew Sweet Girlfriend (Zoo)". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved November 26, 2015.
  5. ↑ Larkin, Colin (2007). The Encyclopedia of Popular Music (5th ed.). Omnibus Press. ISBN 0-857-12595-8.
  6. ↑ Wyman, Bill (December 20, 1991). "Girlfriend". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved November 26, 2015.
  7. ↑ "Matthew Sweet: Girlfriend". Q (70): 100. July 1992.
  8. ↑ "Matthew Sweet: Girlfriend". Rolling Stone: 47. January 23, 1992.
  9. ↑ Collis, Andrew (June 1992). "Matthew Sweet: Girlfriend". Select (24): 77.
  10. ↑ Walsh, Barry (September 3, 2004). "Matthew Sweet: Girlfriend". Slant Magazine. Retrieved November 26, 2015.
  11. ↑ Weisbard, Eric; Marks, Craig, eds. (1995). Spin Alternative Record Guide. Vintage Books. p. 328. ISBN 0-679-75574-8.
  12. ↑ Christgau, Robert (March 3, 1992). "Consumer Guide". The Village Voice. Retrieved November 26, 2015.
  13. ↑ Rolling Stone, November 28, 1991
  14. ↑ Entertainment Weekly, April 17, 1992.
  15. 1 2 3 Matthew Sweet talks about his excellent Girlfriend, a September 1992 article from The Tech
  16. ↑ Matthew Sweet Looks Back on 20 Years of 'Girlfriend'
  17. ↑ Billboard.com album page
  18. ↑ http://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/pnj/pjres91.php
  19. ↑ Matthew Sweet singles chart history at Billboard.com
  20. ↑ Girlfriend [Deluxe Edition] from the Legacy Recordings website
  21. ↑ Rarebird's Matthew Sweet Reviews
  22. ↑ Puckett, Jeffrey Lee. "'Girlfriend' uses Matthew Sweet's music to tell 1990s story at Actors Theatre". The Courier-Journal. Retrieved 15 February 2013.
  23. ↑ Chiu, David. "Matthew Sweet's 'Girlfriend' Musical Opens in California". Spinner. Retrieved 15 February 2013.
  24. ↑ Horn, John. "In 'Girlfriend,' Matthew Sweet's lyrics tell the story". LA Times. Retrieved 15 February 2013.
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