Girlfriend

Girlfriend
Studio album by Matthew Sweet
Released	October 22, 1991
Recorded	1990 at Axis Studios, New York City
Genre	Power pop,[1] alternative rock
Length	60:19
Label	Zoo Entertainment
Producer	Fred Maher and Matthew Sweet
Professional reviews
Allmusic link Robert Christgau (A-) link The Music Box 6/28/06 Rolling Stone link
Matthew Sweet chronology
Earth (1989) Girlfriend (1991) Altered Beast (1993)

Girlfriend is the third album by Matthew Sweet, his most commercially and critically successful album to date, named one of the Top 100 albums of the 1990's by Rolling Stone.^{[citation needed]} AV Club has referred to it as Sweet's magnum opus and labeled it the best power pop album of the 1990s.^[1] Sweet was joined in the studio by Lloyd Cole, Robert Quine, and Richard Lloyd, all musicians he had worked with before.

Sweet recorded the album after his divorce and later said to Rolling Stone, "It's funny how the album ended up showing everything I needed to feel. Everything I needed as an antidote is there."^[2] He told Entertainment Weekly, "People say, 'This is your big breakup record - will you still be able to write good songs?' I'm sure I'll be just as depressed at some other point in my life."^[3]

The album peaked at 100 on the Billboard 200 album chart.^[4] The title track, fueled by its anime-themed video, hit number 4 on the Modern Rock chart and 10 on the Mainstream Rock chart. "Divine Intervention" hit 23 on the Modern Rock chart.^[5]

The cover features a photograph of actress Tuesday Weld from the late 1950s.^[6] Originally called Nothing Lasts^[6], the album was retitled following objections to the title from Weld.

The anime clips in the video for "Girlfriend" are taken from the movie Space Adventure Cobra and the clips in the video for "I've Been Waiting" are of the Urusei Yatsura character Lum Invader. "Weird Al" Yankovic parodied the use of animation on his television special Al TV by adding clips of Ren and Stimpy, Bugs Bunny, Betty Boop, and Rocky and Bullwinkle.

A cover of the song "Girlfriend" is a playable track on the music video game Guitar Hero II.

2006 Legacy Edition

In 2006, the album was remastered and released under the "Legacy Edition" label^[7], with three bonus tracks (originally released on the "Girlfriend" single, subtitled "the superdeformed CD", and also available on the Japanese version of the album), plus a second disk of home demos, live versions and session recordings called Goodfriend. Subtitled "Another Take On 'Girlfriend'", Goodfriend was a 7" EP created and given out as a gift to those who helped in promotion, and was not commercially released until the Legacy Edition. 'Goodfriend' was the original name of the track. But after early listeners universally misheard the lyric, Sweet changed the title to 'Girlfriend.

Track listing

All tracks composed by Matthew Sweet; except where indicated

1. "Divine Intervention" – 5:37
2. "I've Been Waiting" – 3:36
3. "Girlfriend" – 3:40
4. "Looking at the Sun" – 4:16
5. "Winona" – 4:59 (a song named after but not about Winona Ryder^[6])
6. "Evangeline" – 4:45 (sung from the point of view of Johnny Six from the comic book Evangeline)
7. "Day for Night" – 2:55
8. "Thought I Knew You" – 2:57
9. "You Don't Love Me" – 5:21
10. "I Wanted to Tell You" – 4:30
11. "Don't Go" – 3:24
12. "Your Sweet Voice" – 3:54
13. "Does She Talk?" – 3:27
14. "Holy War" – 3:25
15. "Nothing Lasts" – 3:33
16. "Good Friend" (demo) - 3:36
17. "Superdeformed" (demo) - 4:09
18. "Teenage Female" (demo) - 3:54

The three demo tracks appear only as bonus tracks from the 2006 Legacy Edition

Track Listing for Goodfriend - included with "Legacy Edition"

1. "Divine Intervention" (acoustic) - 3:05
2. "Girlfriend" - 2:52
3. "Day for Night" (live) - 3:21
4. "Thought I Knew You" (live) - 3:57
5. "Looking at the Sun" (acoustic) - 4:15
6. "Does She Talk" (live) - 4:23
7. "You Don't Love Me" (live) - 6:47
8. "Someone to Pull the Trigger" - 3:53
9. "I've Been Waiting" (live) - 3:45
10. "Winona" (acoustic) - 4:30
11. "Girlfriend" (live) - 4:05
12. "Cortez the Killer" (Neil Young) (live) - 6:28
13. "Isolation" (John Lennon) (acoustic) - 3:01

Personnel

• Matthew Sweet - vocals, guitar, bass, piano
• Lloyd Cole - guitar
• Robert Quine - guitar
• Richard Lloyd - guitar
• Ivan Julian - guitar
• Greg Leisz - pedal steel guitar
• Fred Maher - drums, guitar
• Ric Menck - drums
• Ron Pangborn - drums
• Amy Ray - guitar, vocals
• Emily Saliers - acoustic guitar
• Jane Scarpantoni - cello
• Paul Chastain - bass, vocals
• Andy McCulla - guitar

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Power Pop. By Noel Murray. AV Club. Published March 19, 2009.
2. ^ Rolling Stone, November 28, 1991
3. ^ Entertainment Weekly, April 17, 1992.
4. ^ Billboard.com album page
5. ^ Matthew Sweet singles chart history at Billboard.com
6. ^ ^{a b c} Matthew Sweet talks about his excellent Girlfriend, a September 1992 article from The Tech
7. ^ Girlfriend [Deluxe Edition] from the Legacy Recordings website