Various Artists - Altered Sweet - A Tribute To Matthew Sweet

The recently released Altered Sweet double CD tribute showcases Matthew Sweet’s skills at creating amazing hooks and heartfelt lyrics about the pitfalls of relationships. The 27 acts chosen by Futureman Records to participate exude an obvious familiarity and affection for Sweet’s power pop gems and meet the challenge of putting their own stamp on them. There are a few missteps here and there, but nothing serious enough to disrupt the party.

CokeRoque offers gorgeous harmonies on their baroque pop version of “Get Older,” but the clip-clop percussion that comes later in the arrangement sounds too cute. Paranoid Lovesick nails the catchy pop of “What Matters,” so we don’t really need the extended call-and-response coda.”Hide” by Donny Brown, “Not When I Need It” by Greg Pope, and “You Don’t Love Me” by Keith Klingensmith are all well-crafted, but these slower tunes have a tough time competing with the more energetic tracks scattered throughout the collection.

The always reliable Lannie Flowers delivers tight harmonies and high-powered guitar work on the optimistic “I’ve Been Waiting,” while Lisa Mychols gives “Looking At The Sun” a dreamy psychedelic vibe. Gretchen’s Wheel mixes acoustic and electric guitars for a catchy take on “Walk Out” that evokes Aimee Mann. The ringing guitars and harmonies on Robyn Gibson’s “I Should Never Had Let You Know” and Trolley’s “Quiet Her” bring to mind The Byrds, as does
Arvidson and Butterfly’s impressive performance of the aptly titled “Byrdgirl.”

It would take too much space to go into detail on each of the songs on Altered Sweet. A quick mention of the many highlights would Michael Carpenter’s “Girlfriend,” Phil Ajjarapu’s “I Thought I Knew You,” Nick Piunti’s “Behind The Smile,” and Andy Reed’s “Where You Get Love.” All in all, they bring some much deserved attention to one of our better modern day composers.