Tomorrow’s Daughter –
Release date: 05/18/2018
Matthew Sweet seems like he’s been around forever but his music always feels fresh to me. That isn’t always the case for many artists. They tend to get stuck in a certain pattern and remain there. Don’t get me wrong there are the familiar killer harmonies you’d come to expect from a MS record. There are the grooves that keep you moving. Also present is the lyrical content that make you want to study each line. But somehow he does it in a way that doesn’t seem like he has released 13 solo albums.
‘Tomorrow’s Daughter’ opens with the first single ‘I Belong To You’. This “road trip” feeling song hits you with those silky harmonies right out of the gate. ‘Run Away’ is an example of just honest to goodness good song writing. Both musically and lyrically, this song hits those sweet spots for me.
The third track is called ‘Lady Frankenstein’. This is a song that feels like “single” material. Its upbeat, catchy and a perfect 2 min and 50 seconds.
The fourth song is my personal favorite. I could probably write about the song ‘Years’ for the rest of the article. It has a serious feel to it. The guitars have a nice gritty tone as well as a little bit of that ’69 Stones lead guitar feel. Straight away I was into the song but then at 48 seconds that little turn around had me starting the song over to re-live it all over again. When the song was over I wondered how I would describe it to someone. It was like Sweet doing a session with the late Scott Weiland the band America. Unbelievable song, this one is. One other thing I want to mention are the harmonies that swell upward in the background. Those really completed the song into a terrific offering from Sweet.
Continuing on with the album I found myself loving Matthew’s vocals over some great lead guitar work and steady drums during the next four songs, ‘Out Of My Misery’, ‘Something Someone’, ‘Girl With Cat’ and ‘Now Was The Future’.
The next two songs ‘Ever After’ and ‘Show Me’ are two different sounding songs that I like equally. ‘Ever After’ has a great sing-along chorus with “and I won’t be afraid..” while ‘Show Me’ has a very nice fuzzy guitar and tremolo that warms up the sound. I love the feel of this song.
Tomorrow’s Daughter finishes with ‘Can’t Pretend’ and ‘Passerby’. The first of these two has a nice slow pace accompanied again by some great lead work. You can really hear the emotion/sadness in Sweet’s voice on this song. The last song is ‘Passerby’. This song is going on my summer playlist. Start to finish it is one of the strongest tracks on the entire album. The only bad thing is that I wish it was track two or three on the album. This song along with ‘Years’ are my absolute favorites on an album full of great tracks where Sweet flexes his pop songwriting acumen on once again.
Matthew worked with some terrific musicians in recording this album. Jason Victor, John Moremen, Val McCallum and Paul Chastain all played guitar on various tracks. Rick Menck and Debbi Petterson shared drum duties. In addition to vocals, Matthew Sweet played bass, guitar and electric piano.
Look for Sweet and his band on the road this summer as he will likely be playing at a venue near you.
The new album ‘Tomorrow’s Daughter’ will be released on 05/18/18 on the Honeycomb Hideout label and distributed by MRI/Sony.
8/10
-TM