Pop Music Reviews : Matthew Sweet Brings Revival to Whisky

Matthew Sweet continued his own relentlessly melodic pop revival at the Whisky on Thursday, weaving the old Beatles-Stones Zeitgeist into a contemporary package that was at once familiar and somehow his own.

The supercharged pop-rock of this Nebraska-born singer-guitarist, who now lives in Los Angeles, has reached another sophisticated level with his new “100% Fun” album, his fifth as a solo artist. At the Whisky, Sweet spent nearly two hours re-creating that record’s smooth vocal melodies, charged guitars and yearning tales of romance.

There were fewer of the spectacular guitar gymnastics that you hear on his albums with such sidemen as Richard Lloyd and Robert Quine . But Sweet and his three-man band still kept an edge to the pure pop with their own sudden moments of inspired guitar rock.

By mid-show, Sweet switched to an acoustic mode for two songs, including a more forlorn take on the new album’s “I Almost Forgot.” But Sweet returned to his primary interest--full-bodied pop--with “Not When I Need It,” sung almost like a nursery rhyme, and reminiscent of popster Todd Rundgren circa 1972.

Sweet doesn’t have the lyrical reach of a Paul Westerberg, but he does often arrive at his own emotional honesty through simple, poignant messages about life and love lost.