#8: "Hide" - Matthew Sweet

Again, lots to say about this particular songwriter who I'm glad has come up with a "hidden" gem in his vast discography. Sweet truly means a lot to me.

I’ll get the bad news out of the way: the past few Matthew Sweet records have left me cold and this is coming from a loyal fan. As opposed to my friend and podcaster Patrick Ripoll, I have this loyalty to listen to everything a favorite artist puts out. He’s mainly content with three records that he can go back to without feeling the compulsion to continue onward. I’m the opposite: the moment someone like Matthew Sweet puts out a new record, I will listen despite the possibility of being disappointed. Around the time of Living Things and on - I started to miss what he accomplished with five records in a row (listed below).

Part of it is curiosity as to whether or not they can recapture the magic of their earlier work or to hear how they’ve evolved. With someone like Matthew Sweet, his approach to songwriting is very straightforward. But the first time I heard the album Girlfriend around 1992 was the same time I heard Nirvana and Liz Phair. I basically wanted to be all three of these musicians since each of them did put out records I listened to over and over again.

Matthew Sweet is a traditional power pop songwriter - I always thought of him as if Neil Young fronted Big Star but of course he is also hugely influenced by The Beatles (particularly Revolver). Then again, who isn’t. When I heard Pet Sounds and The White Album when I was seven years old, suddenly I became obsessed with my dad’s record collection which is why he constantly comes up when I talk about music. (That and I want to keep his spirit alive somehow). I think Matthew Sweet listened to a lot of the same music growing up that I did. He just managed to get signed and become one of the all-time greats in the history of alternative music.

Around the time that Matthew Sweet’s In Reverse came out, I was working for the Purdue University newspaper as an entertainment editor. My initial goal was to become a music journalist. There was this insane moment involving Greg Kot calling me a “fellow scribe” on Sound Opinions that I’ll elaborate on further when we get to an Elliott Smith song. When I got to go backstage at the Metro with my girlfriend (posing as a photographer) to meet Matthew Sweet, it was one of the best moments of my life up until that point. I’ve seen him play about a half dozen times, he was one of the first concerts I went to (still have the ticket stub) and nearly every show has been memorable.

At the time of that first interview, in-person, we talked about his influences, we talked about Bipolar disorder and we talked about our love of cats. So it was one of those times when I thought, “I wish I had an older brother.” That and the fact that this musician was partially responsible for my decision to become a songwriter all just culminated into a blissful experience. I was also able to hear the song “Hide” live for the first time - a heartbreaking song that I still adore.

In Reverse marked the songwriter’s welcome return to recording with a carefully chosen group of musical collaborators and old friends (including Girlfriend producer Fred Maher) — a scenario that’s often yielded mutually inspired results for Sweet and the musicians working with him. It was focused with a specific goal in capturing the mileau of the records he grew up with as a kid. One thing that certainly stands out from his breakthrough smash and the underrated follow up with Altered Beast, the lead guitar players he employs always bring their A-game.

This hour-long excursion is an interesting psychedelic pop record in which it felt like Matthew Sweet embracing even more of a mainstream appeal with songs like “Trade Places,” that has a very typical chord structure and radio-friendly sound. Yet this was also experimental in that he became more playful in the studio too. Just wait til you get to the epic track “Thunderstorm” as a clear example. He always had that 60s & 70s-pop era vibe but this was a wild endeavor for him - he starts the album with a string of tracks that clearly have him trying to capture the Phil Spector “Wall Of Sound” approach to production. “If Time Permits” even has the most clear homage to Pet Sounds that I’ve ever heard (sleigh bells!). He even has the first few tracks bleed into one another staying in a similar key throughout.

As much as I love Matthew Sweet’s hard rocking jams from early on, his ballads have always moved me going back to “You Don’t Love Me” and “Life Without You” off of Girlfriend and Altered Beast. In Reverse also at times captures a 70s A&M Carptenters-vibe with a favorite song of mine called “Hide.” I have no doubt Sweet is a fan of Paul Williams the same way he adores John Lennon and this song in particular showcases that. I even hear echoes of Tom Petty during some rockers like “Faith In You” as well. But let’s stay on course.

The piano chords that kick in paint the picture of what you’re about to hear. This is a tried and true ballad of love gone wrong - perhaps it just inevitably fizzled out. The person he once loved hid their emotions to a fault. They couldn’t last. Some people can’t show love to where they alienate their partner and this song is mostly about that sad fact. “Before I knew I had you / you were gone” is really the key line here too.

I think of that line a lot because most of the lyrics here are on the surface and even by the time the last verse comes along, certain phrases are repeated. It makes me wish there was more to this story - part of me thinks maybe the music was the sole focus and the words were secondary but there’s no denying the impact of realizing that when you love something and let it go, the absence makes the feeling stronger.

What’s interesting is the transition for the second chorus. In the first chorus, the singer says “You hide everything you can” and then later on, he switches it to “I hide everything I can,” so maybe both parties are to blame. They experienced love together but maybe it became stale and unexpressed to where they were just going though the motions as a couple. Then it all fell apart and perhaps he now feels “I actually did love you but I was afraid to show it too.”

Again, the music captures the kind of balladry I grew up listening to in my dad’s record collection. ELO, The Beatles, The Beach Boys, The Carpenters, Harry Nilsson, but then Sweet sneakily gives it his own touch with that pedal steel guitar. It sounds like an extension of the themes and mood captured in another underrated song from his collection called “I Almost Forgot.” They feel like they are related to one another - one hides, one forgets, both are trying to move forward but finding that process very difficult. The only way out of the grief is through the piano which opens both songs. Not to mention the fact that well, I understand the sentiment of breaking up is sometimes for the best. He makes the experience unique and universal at the same time.

That’s the magic of Matthew Sweet’s strengths as a songwriter. Plus he lives up to his last name in that he later invited me to talk with him backstage at a show he played in Evanston where we talked for a good long hour afterwards. He really knows how to craft remarkable love songs that speak to me directly through the music - sometimes even more than the words themselves. “Hide” is a perfect example of that where all the pieces come together and highlight everything I love about what he has done in the past. If he put out an entire record of ballads, I would be beyond ecstatic. Regardless, Sweet will always be a true inspiration for me in ways that Liz Phair and Kurt Cobain did around that exact same time.

If you want to listen to me sing the praises of his work to him directly, I did get to interview him for Voices & Visions and it was pure joy (listen below). If you have yet to explore his catalog, I encourage you to do so starting with the following: Girlfriend, Altered Beast, 100% Fun, Blue Sky On Mars, In Reverse.

Here’s my interview with Matthew Sweet from about six years ago: