Girlfriend - Legacy Edition [Extra tracks, Original recording remastered, Special Edition]

Matthew Sweet | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 13, 2006)
• Original Release Date: 1991
• Number of Discs: 2
• Format: Extra tracks, Original recording remastered, Special Edition
• Label: Volcano
• ASIN: B000FJA9OI
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,578 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

After being dropped from A&M Records thanks to Girlfriend's rough edges, Matthew Sweet might hardly have expected great commercial success when another label brought the album out toward the end of 1991. But an alternative-welcome climate at rock radio stations, along with undeniably great songs and aggressive lead-guitar work by ex-Voidoid Robert Quine and former Television member Richard Lloyd, made the disc an eventual gold-selling hit. Years later, Girlfriend's probe of romance found, lost, and found again continues to sound fresh and daring. --Rickey Wright

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Classic Album Just Got Better, September 23, 2006

By 

Steve Vrana (Aurora, NE) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Girlfriend - Legacy Edition (Audio CD)

Matthew Sweet's 1991 power pop masterpiece just got better with this two-disc 15th anniverasry reissue. In addition to three bonus tracks taken from the Japanese edition of GIRLFRIEND ("Good Friend," "Superdeformed" and "Teenage Female"), there is a second disc entitled GOODFRIEND, that was initially made available only to a handful of retail, radio and record label insiders. This collection of home demos and live tracks is now available commercially for the first time. This bonus disc alone is worth the purchase price.

GOODFRIEND features nine of the fifteen tracks on the original release, including two live renditions of "Girlfriend," one from a BBC 1 broadcast and the other from a Cleveland show. Also included are two covers: a live version of Neil Young's "Cortez the Killer" and a demo version of John Lennon's "Isolation." The real revelations are the acoustic demos. On these tracks the songs are stripped to their essence. "Divine Intervention" becomes a beautifully melodic song of hope and uncertainty. Without Greg Liesz's pedal steel, Winona" loses its country feel but not its poignancy. And "Looking at the Sun" has a haunting beauty in this stark arrangement. [All the live tracks and demos were recorded after the release of GIRLFRIEND between March and September of 1992.]

I first purchased GIRLFRIEND on cassette when it was released in 1991, and then again a few years later to upgrade to CD. But this Deluxe Edition justifies purchasing it again. VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Torchbearer, July 26, 2006

By 

fatmatt (Cleveland, OH) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Girlfriend - Legacy Edition (Audio CD)

I was 20 and going to school in Athens, Ga when this album hit and let me tell you, it had a profound influence on my life. The music absolutely rocks and the lyrics cut right to what me and a lot of people around me we're feeling at the time: insecurity about love, life and the "real world" that was looming ahead at the end of our (4,5...6) years of college. Yes, this is college rock epitomized but with an emphasis on ROCK. Sweet is an incredibly gifted songwriter and musician and (although I didn't understand it at the time) had absorbed the Beach Boys, Beatles, Byrds, and Big Star and was on a mission to share those influences with Generation Xers interested in listening to something other than the heavy slog of Seattle grunge.

I didn't get a chance to see Sweet live until 2000 at the Roxy in Atlanta and I honestly have to say it was the best rock and roll show I've ever seen: raw, immediate, viceral (3 guitars!!!).

If you don't own it, buy it (either the Deluxe addition or just the old cheapie) don't download it either--this one's about DYNAMICS, not lame-o compressed MP3 sound. Definitely one of the best albums of the 90's and that's saying tons.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Groovy Matt at his best, June 15, 2006

By 

Jeff Snell - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Girlfriend - Legacy Edition (Audio CD)

Bought this as soon as i found out it existed. Newly remasted, with great liner notes. The second disk is a cool bunch of extras with some live tracks and some alternate versions. Very nice two disk package.