POP MUSIC REVIEWS : Sweet Gets Grungy at Club Lingerie

Matthew Sweet has apparently found religion and Neil Young, and both seem to be working for him.

Sweet’s music has always been as toothsome as his name: pop as pure and airy as custard. And when he’d play live, wispy blond-brown hair falling over his beatific baby face, it was if an angel had come down to rock ‘n’ roll.

At Club Lingerie on Wednesday, the Georgia-based musician sported a dark-brown moptop and a new band that fleshed out his fragile pop songs with layers of grunge guitar. Sweet always plays his guitar just like ringing a bell, but sideman Richard Lloyd, the ex-Television guitarist, attacked his instrument as if it were a jackhammer.

The brooding tone set by the guitar overload effectively framed Sweet’s androgynous vocals and his groping for the meaning of God in such songs as “Divine Intervention” and “Nothing Lasts,” from his new album “Girlfriend.”

To drive home the break from his musical past, Sweet stuck to tunes from “Girlfriend” and ended the show with a string of other artists’ songs--including a sweaty version of Big Star’s “Don’t Lie to Me” featuring that seminal group’s drummer, Jody Stephens--rather than delving into his own older material.

That’s too bad.

The new songs are more complex and provocative, but when he wants to, nobody can sing a sugar fix like Matthew Sweet.