Matthew Sweet KIMI GA SUKI * Raifu (Cutting Edge)

This album, whose title loosely translates into "I Love Life," was released last year as a gift to Matthew Sweet’s fanatically devoted Japanese following. Popular demand has brought the disc stateside, and with good reason — it’s his most solid work since 1991’s Girlfriend (Volcano), and it features the same basic line-up from that breakthrough album. Written and recorded in just a week, the disc finds Sweet in the throes of an elevated mood swing, churning out whip-smart power pop brimming with spot-on vocal harmonies and barbed guitar hooks.

Like Girlfriend, this release has a pleasantly rough-around-the-edges feel, but Sweet’s talent as a pop tunesmith transcends any production limitations. Kimi Ga Suki * Raifu opens with the gleeful "Dead Smile," a revved-up retro-rocking ode to the raucous garage antics of the early-’60s Who, and there are strains of John Lennon’s "She’s So Heavy" churning through the gritty "I Love You." On the more polished side, "The Ocean In-Between" is a radio-friendly pop-rocker, and a gorgeous vocal hook propels the chorus of "I Don’t Want To Know." The album succeeds because of its simplicity, the gritty interaction of guitars, bass, and drums set to a collection of memorable tunes with little embellishment.