Catspaw - Catspaw

What this video is

Released in the orbit of the COVID-19 pandemic era, Matthew Sweet's Catspaw (January 15, 2021) was a fully self-produced power-pop record recorded in isolation at his Omaha, Nebraska home studio prior to the pandemic — a coincidence that gave the album an uncanny cultural resonance with the lockdown moment. Sweet, a figure who helped define the MTV alternative rock era of the early 1990s with anime-integrated…

Why it matters

Matthew Sweet is a foundational figure in American power-pop and alternative rock, and Catspaw — his 15th studio album and first to feature himself on all lead guitar — represents a late-career crystallization of his sound. The static, meditative visual format of this video is significant as a…