Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	(64/100)
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic
The Boston Globe	(mixed)
Entertainment Weekly	B-
musicOMH
Rolling Stone
Seattle Post-Intelligencer	(positive)
Sputnikmusic
USA Today
Us Weekly

Sweeter is the fourth studio album by American singer-songwriter Gavin DeGraw. The album was released in the United States on September 20, 2011 and features tracks co-written with other artists for the very first time, including Ryan Tedder, Butch Walker and Andrew Frampton. The lead single, "Not Over You", co-written and produced by Ryan Tedder, was released to mainstream radio and to iTunes in May and was a chart success. The album received generally favorable reviews from music critics and received a moderate impact on the charts.

"I worked with four different producers, so different producers recorded different songs with me and you’re getting a lot of variety on there."

DeGraw defined the album as "more refined yet edgier sound". He revealed to The Examiner that "For this album in particular what happened was there were things that I did musically that I recorded that I hadn’t recorded before. Continuing he explained, "Some of the types of singing that I’m doing on this album, I’ve done it live but I’ve never actually recorded it this way." DeGraw also described the album as "just funkier and more sexy than the albums I’ve made in the past. Not that every song is about bumping and grinding cause that’s not at all the record I’m saying I made. It’s just a sexier more intimate type of album.”

"Not Over You," which poignantly evokes the difficulty of getting over someone, is one of two songs DeGraw co-wrote with Ryan Tedder for Sweeter, which was recorded in several locations, including Ryan's studio in Denver, Blackbird Studio in Nashville, producer Butch Walker's space in Venice, CA and the legendary Henson Recording Studios in Hollywood. The album finds DeGraw experimenting with new sounds, which resulted in a potent, swaggering strut, both musically and lyrically, on sexually charged songs like the R&B-infused "Sweeter" and "Radiation." The racier moments are balanced out by more emotionally transparent songs like the vigorous "Not Over You," and the uplifting "Soldier" and "You Know Where I'm At," which convey vulnerability while still managing to feel distinctly masculine. He decided to work with co-writers for the first time as a way to broaden his horizons, such as Ryan Tedder, who also co-wrote and produced "Sweeter," and Andrew Frampton. He also worked with a host of producers including Butch Walker, Eric Rosse and Ron Aniello.

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