Consumer Guide Album

Matthew Sweet: Girlfriend [Zoo, 1991]
Sweet's turn of phrase and tone of voice don't add much to the store of human knowledge about romantic love, and he's not much better on God or war. So he lets guitars define the ineffables for him--his stormy acoustic, Lloyd Cole's workaday electric chunka, and Greg Leisz's choked steel provide a forum where Richard Lloyd and Robert Quine can testify. And though Lloyd shouldn't be forgotten--his slash and roll jumpstart the record--it's Quine's aural kabala, longer on syntheses of ache and soar than on terrible beauty or abstract calm in this context, that contains the wisdom Sweet needs. Just don't expect a translation. A-