Matthew Sweet and His Guitar Take the Reins on ‘Catspaw’
Maeri Ferguson
Posted On January 14, 2021
After four decades of making music and 14 studio albums, you would think there is little left to be discovered by an artist, little left to reinvent. But not for Matthew Sweet. His 15th studio album, Catspaw, is in some ways his debut as a solo artist.
A guitar-centric outing without the usual collaborators (save for longtime drummer Ric Menck), Catspaw features Sweet on all instruments, including lead guitar, bass, even backup vocals. A wash of lush, dark instrumentals and Sweet’s signature smooth harmonies take over from the first thrash of guitar on album opener “Blown Away,” and they don’t let up once. Though the record was completely finished pre-pandemic, there is a mysticism in Sweet’s lyrics about disillusionment, the terror lurking in the unknown, and an apocalyptic sense that the end is nearer than we think.
Sweet gives each track on Catspaw a guitar solo, seemingly allowing the instrument to guide him through whatever mood it’s in — wild and free, hard and foreboding, airy and trippy. Sweet’s guitar takes on the role of duet partner, taking turns with his vocals to step into the spotlight, and floating alongside them like a complementary voice.
“Challenge the Gods,” a defiant call to make your own destiny, features one of Catspaw’s biggest guitar moments, with Sweet’s playing the perfect companion to his layered (literally) harmonies. The guitars in “Hold On Tight” dance in circles like some agent of beautiful chaos, and “Coming Soon” marries a repeating, hypnotic stanza — “And you’re dreaming” — with head-spinning, sumptuous shredding.
It is a wonder Sweet made this record almost entirely on his own — fitting in times of social distancing and quarantining — given how sonically big it is. In true Sweet fashion, Catspaw is full of the kind of atmosphere-filling melodic pop earworms that seem to swirl all around you.
