Matthew Sweet — Living Things

After several years and some ill-received efforts that got bogged down in the black hole known as "overproduction," Matthew Sweet has been taking steps to strip down, first with his folky harmony trio, The Thorns, and now with his newest album, Living Things. Different instrumentation like steel drums on "The Big Cats Of Shambala," add to the rootsy part of the equation, while the bluesy "I Saw Red" gives us plenty of harmonica. On Living Things Sweet focuses on what he does best — creating melodic, sweet power-pop.