Fifteen years ago this month, on Oct. 22 1991, Matthew Sweet released “Girlfriend.”

Film historians often site 1939 as the greatest year in cinema. The untouchable year saw the release of movies such as “The Wizard of Oz,” “The Sound Of Music,” “Mr. Smith Goes To Washington,” and “Wuthering Heights.”

Choosing music’s crowning calendar is a bit more difficult.

The Beatles’ “Revolver,” Bob Dylan’s “Blonde on Blonde,” “Simon and Garfunkle’s “Sound of Silence” and The Beach Boys’ “Pet Sounds” were just a few of the albums from 1966.

The Rolling Stones released “Beggars Banquet” in 1968. That was the same year as The Velvet Underground’s “White Light/White Heat,” The Kinks’ “Village Green Preservation Society” and The Zombies’ “Odyssey and Oracle” among others.

Five years later Elton John released both “Goodbye Yellowbrick Road” and “Don’t Shoot Me, I’m Only the Piano Player. Marvin Gaye piqued with “Let’s Get it On” while Roxy Music dropped “Stranded,” Pink Floyd had “Dark Side Of The Moon,” Led Zeppelin gave us “Houses of the Holy” and the Stooges rocked “Raw Power.”

In fact, for just about every year one can cherry-pick a slew of fantastic and critically important records to make a case for it as the best in music history. Yet some years have stronger cases than others.

One such year is 1991.

And not all of 1991, but just August through October. These 12 weeks are enough fodder to shut up otherwise reasonably minded people who argue there is no such thing as “the good old days” and that today’s music environment is as solid as it’s ever been.

In the span of three months, Pixies released their farewell “Trompe Le Monde” while self-titled albums came from Cypress Hill, Metallica and Blind Melon. Not to mention Blur’s “Leisure,” Pearl Jam’s “Ten,” Nirvana’s “Nevermind,” A Tribe Called Quest’s “Low End Theory,” both “Use Your Illusion I” and “II” by Guns N’ Roses and the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ “Blood Sugar Sex Magik.”

These alone would be enough to qualify 1991 as a monumental time for rock’n’roll. But the year had already given Hole’s “Pretty On the Inside,” R.E.M.’s “Out Of Time,” De La Soul’s “De La Soul Is Dead,” “Gish” from the Smashing Pumpkins and Teenage Fanclub’s “Bandwagonesque” as well as others. To top it off, during the final two months of the year, U2 would drop “Achtung Baby” and My Bloody Valentine would “Loveless.”

It was a damn good time to be a music lover.

The final release of that intense, three-month historic free-for-all was toward the end of October when power-pop songsmith Matthew Sweet released “Girlfriend.”

Though he had a series of under-the-radar, hit-or-miss albums before, this stands as the first of his must-have triad. Besides “Girlfriend,” 1993’s “Altered Beast” and 1995’s “100% Fun” combine to make one of guitar pop’s best ever one-two-three punches.

And “Girlfriend” is the best of the bunch.

It was Sweet sounding exactly like who he was – a guy that grew up on a steady diet of Beatles and Birds harmonies, Cheap Trick and Raspberries guitars solos. He was the guy Todd Rundgren had been waiting for to hand over the long-overdue torch of guitar pop’s greatest force.

In a year filled with larger-than-life, captivating personalities like Axl Rose and Bono, Sweet’s reclusive personality was similar to fellow limelight dodger Kurt Cobain. But his slow-but-steady record sales allowed him more freedom than Cobain and his Nirvana bandmates who were quickly labeled the voice of a generation.

Fifteen years after its release, “Girlfriend” hasn’t aged a day. While many records from the year sound dated – the fidelity questionable, experimentation sounds time capsulated – Sweet’s pinnacle has matured alongside those who heard it during the first Bush administration, while sounding fresh for those who discovered it during the second one.

That’s the best way to judge this release. Do the timeless themes of love and longing still sound timeless? Is the tried and true guitar rock formula still tried and true? Or was Sweet only a breathe of fresh air in a time dominated by down-and-out flannel jockeys?

Of course not.

The world will always need beautifully, non-aggressive guitar pop. Ever since The Beatles sang “And Your Bird Can Sing,” the route toward that kind of pop has been clear. And Sweet has been a landmark tour stop along the way for 15 years. In 1991, he was young enough to sound hopefully naïve, but aged enough to be cautiously optimistic.

And in 2006 “Girlfriend” still sounds like that. Flawless.

Daily Herald BEEP, Oct. 22, 2006