Page 8
Matthew Sweet’s
turns
Girlfriend
of the seventies
Brad Kane
The Collegian
Back in that dark age of high
fashion known as the late 70's,
the punk explosion in Britain
gave rise to another burgeoning
young movement known as New
Wave.
A small faction of New Wave
artists, such as Elvis Costello,
Big Star and Squeeze, specialized
in what was known as power pop
- hook laden, catchy, intelligent
songwriting that straddled the
boundary between the mainstream
and the underground.
With time, power pop's
influence on the music world
lessened as each year went by.
Costello now records
sporadically. Squeeze has changed
its style altogether, Big Star is
Coupled with intricate pop melodies, Sweet turns into a master
craftsman, weaving lyrics and instrumentation into an enjoyable
hybrid.
no more. But earlier this year,
Matthew Sweet released his
fourth album, Girlfriend , in what
has to be viewed as a
revitalization of the power pop
genre.
Depending on driving, 70's
influenced, Rickenbacker guitar
work, Sweet has crafted a gem in
true best-of-both-worlds style. It
may be hard to classify his work
in stylistic terms, but at least we
can tell where Sweet’s coming
from.
Having never realized his true
potential. Sweet released his first
three albums on three separate
labels. Now on the relatively new
Zoo Entertainment label, Sweet
has not only reached those
jora
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On conjunction with the Greater Erie
sour on Girlfriend
is a nineties look at
potential levels, he's shattered
them.
Filled to the brim with 15
tracks, Girlfriend is an ingenious,
insightful, sometimes witty
look at modem love. More often
than not, it's a cynical look, but
Sweet's not here to give a
joyous, idealized view of the
most powerful of emotions.
In true subversive fashion,
Sweet looks at love from the
downside looking up. Coupled
with intricate pop melodics,
Sweet turns into a master
craftsman, weaving lyrics and
instrumentation into an enjoyable
hybrid.
No more is his cynicism
evident on tracks such as
"Nothing Lasts" and "I Thought I
Knew You." Both rely on the
interplay between acoustic and
electric guitars minus drums to
create an interesting and effective
creative tension.
On the former, Sweet keeps
the mood downbeat and
introspective; on the latter he
drives through the track with a
biting edge, adding flavor to the
typical boy-gets-duped-by-girl
story.
A little more hopeful, but
surprisingly more emotional, is
the title track (and lead single),
"Girlfriend" and "Evangeline,”
which both rely on those choppy,
hazy rifts that made the 70's
famous. So gushing and honest
is "Girlfriend" that it makes for a
hard listen the first few times
through.
The Collegian
love
the New Wave
Usually, songwriters gel
personal, but rarely do they get
this involved and obsessive in
their work. Sweet cuts to the
chase on the title track singing:
"I want to love somebody, I hear
you need somebody to love, I
want to love somebody, I hear
you’re looking for somebody to
love.”
If that doesn't eventually
work, then "Looking At The
Sun" might. A bouncy, upbeat
track that turns amazingly cynical
in the end - "For oh, looking at
the sun, Waiting for you to
appear, Watched you getting
nearer, Like I knew it in my
heart, Til the damage was already
done, Looking at the sun, Burned
my eyes out, And I'm blind
now."
Sting may have consummated
80's style obsession on "Every
Breath You Take," but Sweet's
taking it in a new direction in the
90's - a little more hopeful at the
outset, but ultimately less
appealing.
No matter what point of view
you take when listening to
Girlfriend , it's easy to see that
Sweet's got a winner. Without a
doubt, help from the master of
cynical pop himself, Lloyd Cole,
and assistance from Lou Reed
henchman Fred Maher helped
Sweet enormously this time out.
Now that he's firmly
established a base, Matthew
Sweet could become a huge
influence on pop music for years
to come.
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Sleepwalkers
King's latest nightmare
Susan Kass
The Collegian
Sleepwalkers is the most
recent Stephen King horror
movie which revolves around a
new monster.
A handsome, polite and
friendly high school student
moves into town with a
protective mother. This
seemingly harmless boy and his
mother are sleepwalkers:
monsters that feed off of the soul
of a pure virgin. The
sleepwalkers are to cats as
sunlight is to vampires.
The sweet, friendly and
virginal Tanya (Madchcn Amick,
Shelley from Twin Peaks) is
attracted to the flirtatious John
Brady (Brian Krause). It's not
until their first date that Tanya
realizes John doesn't have the
most innocent of intentions
towards her.
King said that he based this
story on serial killers such as Ted
Bundy. Bundy was good looking
and popular, "the only ones to
see that monstrous side are the
victims."
These sleepwalkers also have
superhuman strength and various
visual powers. They don’t
hesitate to kill anyone in their
way but, remember, they are
terrified of cats. Cats see through
the sleepwalker powers. One cat
in particular, Clovis, is a hero
who inspires any viewer to get a
cat including me and I'm allergic
to them.
The sleepwalkers themselves,
John and his mother Mary arc
very, very strange. First of all,
they have an incestuous
relationship. This is not implied
but shown repeatedly. They act
like lovers and seem trapped in an
unending cycle of dependency.
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Thursday, April 16, 1992
John gets the victim, they move
somewhere else and continue;
always alone having nobody
except each other.
Their relationship is the most
important thing in the film not
only because it is freakish and
stirs a curiousily, but because it
is sad, desperate and lonely. The
incest is supposed to shock the
audience, stressing that they're
not normal, but at the same time
it gives an understanding of the
amount of commitment between
them.
The unusual thing about this
Stephen King movie is that it is
not adapted from a book. Instead
he wrote the original screenplay.
I was hoping this change would
be an improvement from most
King movies and it is one of the
belter ones.
Most King movies have
trouble translating his
imaginative stories to the screen.
Movies like Carrie , Christine and
The Shining lacked in
comparison with the books. King
himself has usually been
disappointed except with Rob
Reiners' Stand By Me and
Misery. Sleepwalkers is different
from the rest because he has no
problem translating his ideas to
the screen. But on the other hand
this is a very simple story.
King is known for his
originality and imagination but
this movie is very similar to
many vampire movies. That is
why it is so predictable. But
King still remains the best
storyteller alive. He made the
story exciting with a style that is
all his own.
This is a good horror movie,
but not the best. You will see
blood, grotesque monstrous
figures, a hand or two snapped off
arms and dead cats. Sometimes I
wanted to squirm but many times
it was funny and good humored.
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