Tuesday, December 24, 2024

Number 1: Matthew Sweet - Devil With the Green Eyes

Before I begin, I should say that what I've learned from this little exercise is that perhaps I ought to try to listen to a bit more current music rather than things released years, even decades ago. Maybe I'll start listening to Radio 6 or buying Mojo magazine or something.



So the song I've played most this year is from 1993. In many ways Matthew Sweet should be one of my favourite artists - I love that jangly Byrds and Big Star influenced power pop sort of thing that he specialises in. He has also collaborated with the Jayhawks, one of my favourite bands of all time, and I once saw him live when he was part of a short-lived supergroup called The Thorns.

Yet each time I tried listening I came away thinking that it was nice enough, but nothing really to make me put it on again. Funnily enough I have the same sense of not liking his work as much as I expected to with the other Matthew Sweet, the historian and author of Inventing the Victorians.

This year I have given the musical Matthew Sweet yet another whirl in a bid to find out what it is I'm missing and I have warmed to him a bit more, in particular the 1991 album Girlfriend is consistently good and some of the songs on the Time Capsule best of compilation are very listenable. But nothing has compared to Devil With the Green Eyes, which I have listened to over and over again, this year, often hitting play again after the song has ended. 

With its haunting melody and guitar intro, distinctive use of harmony and background vocal, and dark lyrics about the destructive nature of jealousy, this is an awesome song that has been the runaway winner of my personal listening chart for 2024. The version I've linked to features Richard Lloyd from Television, who contributes a great closing guitar solo.


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