Matthew Sweet: 100% Fun + 16.66% Extra Fun CD Track Listing

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Matthew Sweet 100% Fun + 16.66% Extra Fun (1995)
100% Fun + 16.66% Extra Fun\n1995 Zoo Entertainment\n\nOriginally Released March 14, 1995\n\nAMG EXPERT REVIEW: Clocking in at 45 minutes, Matthew Sweet's third record of guitar-dominated, hook-laden power-pop runs through its 12 songs at a classic speed, piling up songs that lovingly conform to the three-minute pop tradition. Richard Lloyd's gnarled guitars save Sweet's melodies and harmonies from being saccharine or sappy. Behind Sweet's bright hooks lies something darker -- the self-loathing of "Sick of Myself" and the mental manipulation of "We're the Same" aren't evident from the sound of the record, which obliterates any hidden meanings with its chiming guitars and driving rhythms. It might not have the consistent barrage of great songs like Girlfriend, yet it tames the wilder impulses of Altered Beast into an album that rocks its worries away without ever getting rid of them. -- Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide\n\nAmazon.com Editorial Review\nSnap, crackle, and guitar pop with a title that says it all. --Jeff Bateman \n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\nEverything Rocks, August 29, 2003 \nBy Brandon T. Isleib "earthdyedred" (Montgomery, AL)\nThough it does feel a bit quick and slightly empty as a whole, this is still one of the best guitar-rock albums of all time. This would be a great place to introduce yourself to Matthew Sweet's incredible talent. Basically, Matthew Sweet writes some harmony-rich (Matthew Sweet is one of my favorite singers), electric-guitar filled accessible rock songs that are given a classic rock sound by Richard Lloyd and Robert Quine's no-holds-barred leads. The clash of the two sets of styles is fascinating, and it's what makes the songs incredible.\n\nSweet is the vocalist, bassist, rhythm guitar player, and keyboardist on this album, with two lead guitarists (Quine and Lloyd), two different drummers who are both good, and - very importantly - Brendan O'Brien as producer. O'Brien contributes a lot of instrument tracks on here himself, and balances the instruments and vocals perfectly, especially where the solos are in ratio to the rest of the mix. Sweet's previous album, Altered Beast, had its leads too much in the front of the mix as produced by Richard Dashut, giving a slightly too chaotic feel, as Sweet's vocals were slightly hard to hear. O'Brien gives a full sound to 100% Fun, making it very listenable and worthwhile. In fact, Altered Beast would have been a masterpiece if O'Brien had produced it (contrast the album version of "Devil with the Green Eyes" and the O'Brien produced remix on the Son of a Beast EP). So his importance cannot be overstated. All told, there is no reason you shouldn't own this album. It's a staple and definer of my collection. \n\n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\nOnly about 80% fun, May 28, 1998 \nReviewer: Matthew Budman from Highland Park, NJ\nMatthew Sweet is less a great songwriter than he is a great bandleader; he's popular not for soul-probing lyrics and ambitious tempo changes but for sheer power-pop exuberance-for the guitar crunch and noise of "Divine Intervention," the frenzied strumming of "Girlfriend," the layered harmonies of "Devil with the Green Eyes." On "100% Fun," his second CD since 1990's breakthrough "Girlfriend," Sweet delivers more of the same: catchy riffs, twisting leads from Television guitar ace Richard Lloyd and his own reedy voice and bracingly earnest singing. The mix this time is a bit murky; Sweet begins the album by burying the would-be radio hit "Sick of Myself" and delicate "Not When I Need It" beneath walls of sound. Only a few songs, like the pulse-quickening "Super Baby," sport arrangements as dynamic and crisp as Sweet's band's work when it backs singer Lloyd Cole. So that's "100% Fun": no instant classics, no surprises, and only about 80 percent fun, but upbeat as hell, and a solid record that'll keep guests groovin' at your next party. Don't bother if you don't already own "Girlfriend" or "Altered Beast."\n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\n100% Fun, May 27, 2000 \nReviewer: aLittleEmoGirlFromTheMidwest (see more about me) from lincoln, nebraska (home of Matthew)\nI grew up in Nebraska and when I walked into my seventh grade english classroon with a goofy smile and big blue eyes and a short hair cut... well, let's just say my 20something teacher giggled. I am a girl and yes I was accused of looking exactly like Matthew Sweet on the cover of this one... so I had to go explore what my twin look-alike looked like... especially since he was a boy. And that was when Matthew Sweet one a top spot on my list of favorites... from that day on I was always humming a tune from one of his albums. I took that album for granted, as new albums came out 100% Fun got pushed back farther and farther... and I never really truly explored this one until this last year.\n\nIn a desperate search for something new to listen to I pulled this one off of the shelf... Its cracked case and sweat stained lyrics book was plopped into my backpack along with my books, an apple and a CD Discman. Later that day I sat at the Union in between classes and opened the case and put the CD into my case and I discovered how truly amazing this album was for the first time... for the first time after owning it for years. I fell in love when the third track rolled aroun, "We're the Same" seemed to mimick my friendship with a boy I knew perfectly. Then he walked into the room making the moment almost surreal.\n\nI will forever wish back to those days that my english teacher giggled at my appearance and just push myself to listen to that album sooner... but it no longer collects dust. Matthew Sweet is so incredibly under-rated, as my friend Junior said "Oh my gosh, you are a die-hard Matthew Sweet fan? I had just imagined those never existed." Well he had only thought that because people do not realize what this man, boy, whatever has to offer. He is not for everyone, but for the one in every however many he is meant for... well, I just hope that you find out soon enough if you, too, should be a diehard Matthew Sweet fan because he is a beautiful find. \n\nAnd don't you just have to ROCK out when "SuperBaby" comes on... and swoosh around the room when "Smog Moon" plays... and hop about when radio-friendly "Sick of Myself" jumps up at you.\n\nThis album is 100% fun, even if I didn't realize it at first.\n\nAmazon.com Customer Review\nOh So Bitter, April 17, 2000 \nReviewer: John Rockwell (see more about me) \nMatthew Sweet shows his pop prowess yet again in this album. The neat thing about Sweet is that he writes what sound like nice pop songs about love, but when one analyses the tone of the lyrics, one finds bittnerness and anger hidden beneath.\n\nThis is one you can play for the girlfriend and she'll think you're playing nice love music. For example, "Sick of Myself" at first appears to be a song about how self-loathed Sweet is against the backdrop of his perfect lover. However, the overstatement betrays the true meaning. When he says, "I'm sick of myself when I look at you...something is beautiful and true..." the overstatement becomes sarcasm. The chorus ends with the words, "I'm beginning to think, baby you don't know," which shows Sweet's view of the female subject in most of the songs on this album: ignorant and/or dense.\n\nMaybe it's good that the songs sound so outwardly nice. When a woman hears "Baby we're the same," shes likely to think it's a song about two lovers in sync and not a song about a poor guy in a relationship where he's the object. What "We're the Same" is really about is some poor bloke who is a mere token, an empty canvas, in a love-relationship. Careful listeners will note that the song ends, "Maybe it's me, maybe it's you--Maybe it's you."\n\nSo if you're ever feeling like mixing passive agressiveness with your music, this is definitely the album for you. Not only is the music strong, but the content is interesting and entertaining. A must have for Sweet fans and a good introduction to his music. (Even though the album sits somewhere in the middle of his discography...)\n\nAmazon.com Customer Review\nHow to Exit Heartache, October 31, 1999 \nReviewer: Richard Van Deusen (vandrr76@oneonta.edu) from Oneonta, NY, USA, Earth\nIt's pretty easy to tell that Mathew Sweet's best music comes from heartache. "Girlfriend" hurt and was a wonderful album. "Altered Beast" hurt even more and in some ways was even better than "Girlfriend". "100% Fun" shows Sweet recovering, and the hurt has dissipated somewhat, leaving a less impressive but still excellent record.\n\nSweet turns out great tuneful songs that, while still filled with ache, now actually seem to overcome the singer's various personal traumas. In fact the album's three best songs ("Come To Love" - dig that pre-chorus!, "Smog Moon", and the almost spookily insightful "Get Older") are the disc's most successful.\n\n"Get Older" is Sweet's second most underrated song (next to "What Do You Know?" on "Altered Beast"). It manages to handle uncertainty, fear, lack of acceptance, and general growing pains in a way that is so sweet that it's almost painful to hear (in a good way).\n\nOn the whole, the album brings a satisfying, sincerely hopeful conclusion to Sweet's heartbreak trilogy of albums without ever coming close to being sappy or sugary.\n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\nGetting by with the essentials, November 18, 2002 \nBy J. GARRATT "jgarratt" (Columbus, Ohio United States)\nAfter Matthew Sweet completed his brooding masterpiece Altered Beast, many people told him that he had made an uncharacteristically dark album. In response, he said "my next album will be 100% fun!"\n\nAnd that it is. Sweet pounds out 12 pop tunes with great ease and spirit. Most of them are memorable while a few tend to slide from his winning formula. But the problem here is that Sweet didn't develop the formula.\n\nI say that because 100% Fun is more of a snapshot than it is a great body of work. The album almost sounds like it was recorded too quickly and there are certain depths that could have been used.\n\nEverything Changes is a song that never changes, and Lost My Mind sounds like a lost experiment in pop psychedelia. These are just a few examples of the great pop album that 100% Fun could have been if it were just left in the oven a little longer.\n\nPerhaps it was an expediency that he needed to get out of his system. At any rate, 100% Fun is still a lot of fun to listen to. \n\n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\npoor matthew sweet, September 1, 2000 \nBy jay (seattle pride baby!)\npoor kid never gets the props he deserves, simply because his career is so erratic. (or erratic-seeming). after all, he made one of the best pop albums of the decade (girlfriend), then came out with a complicated, hurt, angry, complicated, navel-gazing record (altered beast) -- to largely critical hostility. then he made 2 pop records, one bad, one good (this one!!!) and a superb concept record, comparable to "pet sounds." and what does he get? not a damn thing.\n\nthis is the record whose lack of acknowledgement bugs me the most. musically, it's a tribute to rem, big star, the beatles, neil young .... lyrically, it's as dark as "altered beast" -- sweet is a coldhearted cad, or an alienated hurt lonely wimp. the music is pristine, powerful pop, and the combination with such dark lyrics is a fantastic one. "we're the same" and "sick fo myself" are damn near perfect, and while there are some weak tunes here and there ("lost my mind," "walk out," "everything changes"), the overall quality of the record is astonishing.\n\n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\n\n\nSpin (12/95, p.62) - Ranked #7 on Spin's list of the '20 Best Albums Of '95.' \n\nVillage Voice (2/20/96) - Ranked #20 in Village Voice's 1995 Pazz & Jop Critics' Poll. \n\nEntertainment Weekly (12/29/95-1/5/96, p.132) - Ranked #8 on EW's Top 10 Albums Of 1995. \n\nRolling Stone (4/6/95, pp.61-62) - 4 Stars - Excellent - "...A wooly blend of pop hooks, rock & roll fervor and fine love songs, 100% FUN is a better album than perhaps even Sweet had any right to expect....a rock & roll record with immediacy, verve and depth that discloses its appeal readily and its secrets slowly..." \n\nSpin (4/95, pp.196-197) - 8 - Highly Recommended - "...Quine and Lloyd are still around, which is only proper: You wouldn't walk away from a challenge, would you? And this time you're up to it....Electric? Guitar is still here, but she works for you. For now." \n\nMusician (6/95, p.70-71) - "...offers zero-percent bile....Even when the lyrics wax pessimistic...the hooks and arrangements--graced by the guitar work of Richard Lloyd and Robert Quine--project a buoyancy and bite that preclude cynicism..." \n\nEntertainment Weekly (4/14/95, p.64) - "...Sweet crafts pop the old-fashioned way: with loud guitars, lovesick-wimp lyrics...and choruses that will encourage amateur singers to warble along....[100% FUN] makes you feel as if a good pop hook can solve any crisis..." - Rating: B+ \n\nAlternative Press (4/95, pp.77-78) - "...Imagine if Neil Young had released 20 years of Crazy Horse albums one after the other in the space of merely six, instead of interspersing them with all that other stuff? You'd know exactly what to expect every time, but that wouldn't spoil the shock of discovery, the thrill of the bombast and the essential fact that Young writes amazingly wonderful songs. So does Sweet..." \n\nCD Connection.com Review\nPersonnel: Matthew Sweet (vocals, acoustic, electric & 12-string guitars, piano, electric piano, electric harpsichord, synthesizer, bass, theremin); Brendan O'Brien (acoustic, electric & slide guitars, piano, electric piano, electric harpsichord, Clavinet, Mellotron); Richard Lloyd, Robert Quine (electric guitar); Greg Leisz (pedal steel guitar, electric lap steel guitar, mandolin); Stuart Johnson, Ric Menck (drums). \n\nRecorded at Southern Tracks Recording Studio, Atlanta, Georgia. \n\nStarring the same cast of characters who helped him sculpt previous works--guitarists Richard Lloyd (Television) and Robert Quine (Richard Hell & The Voidoids) along with Velvet Crush drummer Ric Menck--100% FUN brims with the power-pop hooks that Matthew Sweet has become known for. \n\nHelmed by uber-producer Brendan O'Brien, the album retains Sweet's veiled cynicism, whether it's the self-loathing of "Sick Of Myself" or the feeling of abandonment in "Walk Out," a song whose point is point driven by O'Brien's insistent harpsichord playing. Sweet's desperation culminates in the semi-delusional vibe ebbing from "Lost My Mind": while Menck plays a constant militaristic cadence, Quine and Lloyd riff in and out of the song and O'Brien's mellotron pulses and oozes in a vortex that has Sweet's voice ebbing in and out of a fog. \n\nWhile the scenery around this part of Sweet's psyche may seem familiar, the tight production and crack playing groove enough to shed some light on this darker side of town.
This rock cd contains 14 tracks and runs 49min 29sec.
Freedb: aa0b970e
Buy: from Amazon.com

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