best song on girlfriend

Girlfriend, obv. Does She Talk is 2nd for me.

a poll from scott! a first? i'll have to listen again. i just recognize the biggies from the titles.

i hid polls for 10 years.

i love "day for night" so much but the live versions from this era are so much better. like the one on that goodfriend promo. which i now see someone put out on vinyl! i had no idea. must have been an RSD thing. would totally buy that. love the live indigo/sweet cortez the killer so much.

I could listen to the colliding solos from Quine and Lloyd all day.

what country singer could do the most justice to "you don't love me"? would love to hear a great woman country singer belt that out with weeping strings and ace session dobro.

would have loved to hear shania twain do "does she talk?" at the height of her pocket monster pulchritude. with ac/dc backing her up obviously.

I didn't think I'd find you
Perfect in so many ways

Kenny Chesney could do it, Scott.

By the way, I'm surprised you love this record.

I voted "Evangeline" over "Day for Night."

Is it just me, or is this record front-loaded? I barely remember the last 4-5 songs, and would have to force myself to forget the first 5-6.

Jim Rondinelli is this record's secret weapon. Beautiful drum sounds (he worked similar magic for Scrawl on He's Drunk).

I'm with you 100% about it being frontloaded although I have no doubt that the Iron Law of ILX will kick in and this assertion will be labeled challops.

Way too long.

saw Sweet on Tuesday, was great!

has anyone listened to the recent album?

It is frontloaded, but it's not that the side 2 tracks aren't good, it's that there's a better version of each song on side 1. (Except "You Don't Love Me" > "Winona".)

This is 60 mins long! There isn't a power pop album on the planet that should be an hour long

"By the way, I'm surprised you love this record."

i love girlfriend and altered beast forever and ever. but that's it. don't listen to anything else. i might not be alone there. i did enjoy the josie & the pussycats soundtrack.

altered beast is also too long but i don't care.

(Except "You Don't Love Me" > "Winona".)

otm. Never liked "Winona"...in fact, I always found it kind of embarrassing.

i feel like i know so much of this album by heart but i couldn't pick "your sweet voice" out of a lineup no matter how many times i've played it. and i've played it a lot over the years. great albums shouldn't be perfect though. you don't want to offend God.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

xpost - Simon H - no, but the new songs he did live seemed pretty good

Divine Intervention

I actually love "your sweet voice" - the harmonies, the weeping steel guitar, Lloyd's liquid solo...

For me, "I've Been Waiting" has achieved defining-song-of-the-genre status.

My "ex" put this record in rotation back in the day -- i was away when she got it so she already knew all the songs before i even heard the guys name. I was easily won over by the first "ooh-ooohs" on Divine Intervention. I don't listen to it now-a-days because it occupies the space of "her" and "then"; but i did for this poll. The false-start and subsequent driving rhythm on "Thought I Knew You" seems appropriate for my vote.

I thought the last three songs were supposed to be thought of as "bonus tracks," not that that excuses the album's longness.

Anyone seeing him on his current tour? I missed the show here but caught him at the record store, where he played three new songs, all pretty memorable, and "I've Been Waiting," its high notes as high as ever, remarkably.

I love this album. I have heard every song on it so much it's one of those ones I don't even have to listen to to hear them fully formed in my head. And as much as I love "I've Been Waiting," I think "Evangeline" is the stealth secret weapon here.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

"Looking At The Sun" was robbed

Damn, "You Don't Love Me" deserves at least one vote for sure

i have never heard of this album... gonna listen now

yeah, thanks for bringing this to my attention, sounds great!

The right one won

This poll was too brief. The album is a good length IMO. I've Been Waiting is just the most perfect, Looking At The Sun just slays me ("Do you want to run away with me?" is a pretty killer opening line), and the sad songs (You Don't Love Me, Nothing Lasts, Don't Go) are just the most fun you can have being sad in pop. As great a songwriter as Sweet is, however, this would be half the album without the fierce and wonderful guitars throughout. Sweet pop + wild skronk is my happy place.

This poll was too brief.

ie I didn't see it till it was too late to vote!

damn this album is solid. nere a dud. gimme the title track.

Great album throughout, a special fave for on the road, too. Would've voted I've Been Waiting, 24k gold.

I voted "Divine Intervention" for those snarling guitars. I don't listen to this album often enough, probably because it's too long & I'd rather have had the second side moved largely to b-sides...but I'd still want to hear them sometimes.

someone earlier said that they loved this album and Altered Beast and then nothing more by Sweet. Despite loving this album from its release I could never get into Altered Beast save for "Time Capsule". I blame college. But 100% Fun and even the next one, Blue Sky On Mars, still hold up for me. I listen to 100% Fun more than Girlfriend even, because of its concision. He had a way with opening and closing songs, didn't he?

Oh man I didn't see this poll. Would have voted Evangeline.

It was an odd and fun thing when "Girlfriend" was in heavy rotation on MTV. Robert Quine's on tv! Every day!

Always worth reposting:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXZsuEFrPeo

I remember all those things, even the longboxes.

Nice i didn't go it alone on my track choice.

I like these Sweet albums, but I thought Lloyd Cole, working with Quine, Sweet, and Lloyd too, made the smarter and better records.

happy 30th

did Pat mastellotto know who Quine was? did Quine know who Mr Mister was? Who's the rhythm guitar player? radney Foster? and that is Sara Lee, right?

Vinyl reissue coming next year

xpost I don't know the exact timeline, but Pat was certainly full-time session work by then. Tying it all together, though, is that Sara Lee played with Fripp in the League of Gentlemen, Quine certainly knew and/or knew of Fripp, and of course Pat went on to play with Sylvian/Fripp and King Crimson just a couple of years after "Girlfriend." So they're all pretty connected already.

Oh, and apparently the other guitarist is Murray Attaway, who was in Guadalcanal Diary.

I've never seen the second clip, btw!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ieKFOOGP1r8

Such a gorgeous long box in the first clip. Not all covers worked in that format, but Girlfriend really sings.

Don’t remember seeing either of those Dennis Miller Show clips, thanks!

And, apart from Quine and Matthew Sweet himself, nobody else in that band was on the album, afaik.

No, but lots of people from Quine's circle are. Fred Maher, Ivan Julian, Richard Lloyd, etc. And a lot of them had just worked a bunch with Lloyd Cole, right? (And he's on the album, too.)

Is Ivan Julian on that album? I guess he is, plying rhythm? I saw him live with Matthew Sweet, in which context he was playing some good leads.