Knowing People

This is my favorite song to listen to when I get fed up with the ignorance of the world - needless to say I'm listening to it a lot these days. Most people live the most cynical lives without an eye toward how our actions affect the future.

Ironic that Matthew Sweet--known primarily for writing sweet, pretty love songs--let loose this bilious tirade. Perhaps it's because it runs counter to Sweet's image that this song seems especially misanthropic and self-hating. (I assume "Sweet" is a pen name; if not, it's an odd coincidence).

Much of Altered Beast has this dichotomy between catchy melodies and dark lyrics (the very-explicit suicide note "I Need Someone to Pull the Trigger" for example), but "Knowing People" stands out as one of the most bitter sentiments I've heard, from anyone.

My impression is that--when Sweet vents his disgust, with lines such as, "Your desperate dreams are pathetic"--it's deliberately ambiguous whether he's referring to someone else, or to himself.

Themes of self-hatred and self-disgust are prominent, also, in "The Devil With The Green Eyes". A contemporary Sweet song, "Superdeformed", was left off the album--perhaps because these two songs are so similar, it seemed redundant. ("Superdeformed" appears only on the No Alternative compilation, probably best known for its uncredited Nirvana track)

I have severe problems with anxiety, depression and agoraphobia -- so the chorus hits uncomfortably close to home.

I couldn't agree more, mandc. The lyrics definitely blur the line between hatred directed at others and self-loathing. I think assuming it's only about hatred of other people is to entirely miss the point. I also like that there's a bit of humor to it (the backing vocals, the over-the-top guitar work at certain points etc), despite it being such a markedly misanthropic song.

Never thought of the song having elements of parody, but it fits. Someone who truly felt like this--all (or most) of the time--would be too isolated from humanity to have a musical career, or engage in the collaborative process of recording.

Most of the backing vocals sound electronically mangled (barely human); other are pretty and crooning, and wouldn't sound out-of-place on a mid-period Beatles LP. Another weird combination: similar to the depressed or angry words, clashing with music which tries to be likable.

Then there's the spoken snippet from the film Caligula at the beginning of Side B. Difficult to take seriously.