Syd Straw – Surprise

Syd Straw seemed to arrive from deep in the heart of nowhere in 1989 when this wonderful, under-rated album appeared on the scene. But wherever she came from she sure made some good friends fast.

The album was produced by Straw with a couple of production collaborators including  none other than  Van Dyke Parks and Daniel Lanois. She performed songs written or co-written by Peter Holsapple, Michael Stipe, Jody Harris and Peter Blegvad, and the musicians on the album were the veritable whos who including Greg Leisz, Marshall Crenshaw, Richard Thompson, John Doe, Don Was, Dave Alvin, Ben Tench, Ry Cooder, Jim Keltner and the aforementioned Stipe, Holsapple, Parks, Lanois, Harris and Blegvad.

How it didn’t become one of the stand-out albums of the decade defies logic.

Listening to the album now it’s still very, very good, but maybe not as strange as it sounded at the time.

Straw herself is an endearing vocalist, but in retrospect she was more deeply likeable than desperately unique. Not that being a “deeply likeable” singer is in any way anything short of a major compliment!

Straw had been a backing vocalist and had come to the attention of the “cool kids” when she was recruited by Anton Fier for his Golden Palominos project. Interestingly the strongest song on Surprise is still Future 40’s (String of Pearls) which features contributions from Fier and fellow Palomino Michael Stipe. It’s a countrified alterna-pop song and it still sounds triumphant 20 years later.

What did set Surprise apart was the lyrical approach Straw took. There was nothing ‘pop’ about he words and even now the lyrics bear close attention, thought and interpretation. She comes across as literate and challenging, but not deliberately obscure. It’s an album that derives great benefit from listening with the lyric sheet close at hand. It’s music that sounds great in the background but it offers a lot more value than background music.

There is a couple of wild card songs on here. Her performance of the Stephen Foster, traditional folk song Hard Times is intriguing. The Unanswered Question is almost up there with Future 40’s until it takes a couple of mystifying tangents. Think Too Hard opens the album and it’s a delicious guitar pop-rock song. Its joined by another on Side 2 – the wonderful Racing To The Ruins. And the quirky Sphinx ultimately delights after winning a close battle with a conflicting opinion that is a little too silly.

Syd Straw went on to do another reasonably well  received album War and Peace (well it took her seven years!) before disappearing from recording until 2008 when she released Pink Velour on her own label. She performs sporadically, has acted a little and moved to a small town in Vermont where she lives happily as a creative dabbler.

But Surprise was her most ambitious and fully realised album.

Matthew Sweet

When Matthew Sweet released the album Girlfriend in 1991 he was actually having his second shot at breaking through.

He didn’t waste it.

He had previously released major label albums on Columbia and A&M and although he received some critical acclaim he didn’t sell a lot of records.

Sweet was a native of Lincoln, Nebraska who relocated to Athens, Georgia in the early 80’s. Sweet collaborated with R.E.M. member Michael Stipe under the name Community Trolls as well as being in Stipe’s sister Lynda Stipe’s band Oh-OK, and in 1983 also formed another band, Buzz of Delight.

It was some time after that that he was given his shot at Columbia.

After being dropped from A&M Sweet quickly recovered and formed a new band including extraordinary players  Richard Lloyd (ex Television), Robert Quine (who played with Lou Reed amongst others) , Greg Leisz (who plays with anyone so long as they are good!) , Lloyd Cole, and Fred Maher (ex Scritti Politti and a gun producer in his own right). The new group spent 1990 assembling Sweet’s next work, originally titled Nothing Lasts. It would have been a disgrace if this collection of players couldn’t have created an outstanding album.

Sweet found another label (Zoo) changed the name of his album to Girlfriend and before long his exquisite power pop songs were hits, especially the title track and other gorgeous and irresistible songs like I’ve Been Waiting, Divine Intervention, Evangaline, Holy War and Thought I Knew You.

Sweet toured Australia around that time.

A series of albums followed including Altered Beast,  Son of Altered Beast, 100% Fun, Blue Sky on Mars and  In Reverse. The albums all had some great tracks but Sweet, despite maintaining a dedicated fan base, was never able to reach the heights of the commercial success of Girlfriend,

Since the turn of the century Sweet has made some interesting collaborative decisions and continues to enjoy a lot of respect in the music community. He’s has an enviable reputation as the musician that other quality musicians like.

As testament to this in early 2002, Sweet formed The Thorns with Shawn Mullins and Pete Droge, two other highly regarded singer-songwriter types. Sweet released a new album of solo material, Living Things in late 2004, though the material on the album was recorded in 2002.

In April 2006 Sweet hooked up with Bangles member Susanna Hoffs to release a collection of 1960′s songs.  Under The Covers Vol. 1 featured their versions of songs including Monday, Monday and The Kids Are Alright.  As a collaboration between these two it comes as no surprise that the album is long on pop melody.

Matthew Sweet’s latest album is called Sunshine Lies and it was released on a interesting label called Shout Factory, which specialises in everything from jazz, blues and country to re-releases of retro recordings and a big catalogue of quirky old tv shows and box sets. Its not your typical record company but it does seem suited to Sweet’s place in pop culture.

Sweet has described the new record’s sound as “power-pop-folk-rock-psychedelic-melodic-singer-songwriter-type stuff” , which could just about describe his entire career.

As usual, Sweet (guitars, bass, keyboards, mellotron, lead and harmony vocals), who produced and mixed the LP at his own Lolina Green Studios in L.A., has a great band including Richard Lloyd, Greg Leisz and Ivan Julian (Richard Hell & the Voidoids) along with drummer Ric Menck (Velvet Crush). Susanna Hoffs also makes a fleeting vocal appearance.

Whether Sweet ever returns to Australia is problematic. Apparently he has a fear of flying and the alternative means of getting to Australia have their own problems. Hopefully something can be worked out.