2000 Great Songs #1306: The Ocean In-Between
After a lackluster start, Matthew Sweet rallied to release a remarkable three-LP run of power pop classics (1991's Girlfriend , 1993's Altered Beast , and 1995's 100% Fun )--maybe four, as 1997's Blue Sky On Mars was still pretty great. Since then, his albums have been perfectly fine, never bad, just not as essential--more like opportunities to pick out a few songs for a mix. One of the odder entries in his post-90s catalog was 2003's Kimi Ga Suki , which he opted to release exclusively in Japan. It seemed like a weird decision to make the record so hard to find, as it was actually pretty damn great, with some perfectly solid songwriting and performances. (It's since become a little more widely available.) In fact, I'd argue that the record's "The Ocean In-Between" is at least as good as, if not better than, a lot of his better-known 90s tracks. It's everything you might demand in your power pop music--big, chiming guitars, catchy melodie...
