Altered Beast (album)
| Altered Beast | ||||
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| Studio album by Matthew Sweet | ||||
| Released | 13 July 1993 | |||
| Recorded | January – February 1993 | |||
| Genre | Alternative rock, power pop | |||
| Length | 57:32 | |||
| Label | Zoo Entertainment | |||
| Producer | Richard Dashut and Matthew Sweet | |||
| Matthew Sweet chronology | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |   |
| Rolling Stone | |
Altered Beast is the fourth album by alternative rock musician Matthew Sweet. It was released on Zoo Entertainment in 1993.
Some of the album's guest musicians included drumming by Mick Fleetwood (Fleetwood Mac), Jody Stephens (Big Star) and Pete Thomas (Elvis Costello's backing band, the Attractions), guitaring by Richard Lloyd (Television), Robert Quine (Voidoids) and Ivan Julian (Voidoids), keyboarding by Nicky Hopkins, and fiddle by Byron Berline on the lead single, "The Ugly Truth".
The cover of the album, produced in five different colored versions (yellow, blue, green, orange and purple), features a dinosaur logo. Originally, Sweet wanted to use the logo of the Japanese delivery company Yamato Transport on the cover, but was denied permission; Sweet has described the dinosaur design as a "consolation prize".
Initial responses to the record were mixed, with Rolling Stone writing that it had "inspiring moments; the problem is finding them."AllMusic agreed that the album is "all over the place", yet noted that "it takes a bit of time for all of it to make sense, but after a few listens, it falls together."
The title of the album is based on the arcade game, Altered Beast. Sweet has declared the title meant "whatever is inside you that someday might explode, and maybe you don't know it's there", which he found similar to the game, where "you have to find these little power-up things, and when you eat them you become the Altered Beast, this other creature that's really powerful and violent".
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