MATTHEW SWEET : Cheery Popster Stares Into Belly of the ‘Beast’

Matthew Sweet has this thing about gloom.

“Every time I write a happy song, I want to write a negative song,” he says, which perhaps explains the sharp turn toward the dark side on “Altered Beast,” his second album for the Zoo Entertainment label.

The record will surprise fans of the candy pop on Sweet’s “Girlfriend,” one of last year’s big alternative records. A clue to the change can be found in the title, which is borrowed from a video game in which the hero constantly transforms into a monster to reach a higher level.

“I can see myself making a record a little more cheerful,” says Sweet, 28. “But those were the feelings I was going through at the time (of the recording).”

The pressures of being on the road for a solid year and then beginning the follow-up to a 400,000-seller contributed to the Angst of such songs as “The Ugly Truth,” which can be read as Sweet’s image-shattering take on the flip side of success.

Add to that such songs as “Knowing People,” “Someone to Pull the Trigger” and “Devil With the Green Eyes”--all of which question love and belief in stark, despairing terms--and you apparently have a candidate for therapy.

“I can only chalk it up to my having a hard time dealing with my life in general and how having success impacted that,” Sweet says. “It made me more introverted and confused, especially since before that I had experienced deep non-success.”

The Nebraska native, who launched his career in the Athens, Ga., music scene, is alluding to the commercial failures of his first two albums (on Columbia and A&M;). He was also turned down by every label in the business for “Girlfriend”--including Zoo Entertainment. Legend has it that the label’s president, Lou Maglia, heard Sweet’s tape playing in an A&R; exec’s office and decided to reverse his decision.

A Los Angeles show is planned for October. Those wondering whether Sweet will be around to perform shouldn’t worry.

“At the end of the day, when all is said, I always want to stick a pin in the balloon,” he says. “I’ll live. It’s not like I have a real problem.”