Matthew Sweet

★★★★ Catspaw OMNIVORE.

CD/DL/LP

Lockdown spawns Sweet’s 15th album, nodding at Big Star, Television, Cheap Trick.

Cut him and Sweet would likely bleed powerpop, so despite Catspaw’s shift to darker subject matter (life’s inherent cruelty; the trials of ageing), this latest missive from the Nebraskan’s Black Squirrel Submarine studio packs ear-worms and dulcet vocal harmonies galore. Spattered with sparky guitar leads, it peaks with Challenge The Gods, a let-us-not-go-gently call to “punch the world in the face ”, the soaring, nature appreciative ball ad Drifting, a joyous happening that is Stars Explode, and punchy opener Blown Away, which feints at T.Rex’s Children Of The Revolution. Though the strictly-adhered-to stylistic template could perhaps have done with a shake-up before Parade Of Lights’ backwards guitars finally press reset, often charms. “I wanted to tell the ugly truth”, Sweet has said. And so he has. Beautifully.

James McNair