Song of the Day: Matthew Sweet – Feel Fear

…in which Matthew Sweet asks the musical question are you scared out of your wits, or are you just too f’d in the head to understand ? He says it so sweetly, though, with a melody so pure and vertical that you might fail at first to process the lyrics, with Sweet telling you, more in sadness than exasperation, that you’re fooling yourself if you think there’s anything or anybody, down here or up above, that’s ever going to save you. Nope. You’re on your own, friend, and you may as well be on a pogo stick in a minefield. Feel Fear, it’s gentle music serving as a vehicle for sentiments dour enough to come from Randy Newman, is a lot like a velvet pillowcase emptied of its feathers and filled instead with rocks and roofing nails. I love it. It’s simply beautiful, even if you think he’s wrong, which he isn’t.