Altered Beast is the fourth album by alternative rock

Alternative rock

Alternative rock is a genre of rock music and a term used to describe a diverse musical movement that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s and became widely popular by the 1990s...

 musician Matthew Sweet

Matthew Sweet

Sidney Matthew Sweet is an American alternative rock/power pop musician. He was part of the burgeoning Athens, Georgia music scene in the early and mid-1980s before gaining commercial success during the early 1990s...

. Released by Zoo Entertainment in 1993, the initial response to this record was cool compared to Girlfriend, with Rolling Stone

Rolling Stone

Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...

writing that the album was "[f]rustratingly uneven," with "inspiring moments; the problem is finding them."

Sweet was accompanied by a high-powered group of guest musicians. Among the drummers were Mick Fleetwood

Mick Fleetwood

Michael John Kells "Mick" Fleetwood is a British musician and actor best known for his role as the drummer and namesake of the blues/rock and roll band Fleetwood Mac. His surname, combined with that of John McVie, was the inspiration for the name of the originally Peter Green-led Fleetwood Mac...

 (Fleetwood Mac

Fleetwood Mac

Fleetwood Mac are a British–American rock band formed in 1967 in London.The only original member present in the band is its eponymous drummer, Mick Fleetwood...

), Jody Stephens

Jody Stephens

Jody Stephens is an American drummer, who has played in Big Star and Golden Smog . When not on tour with Big Star, he works at Ardent Studios, which is where Big Star has recorded all of their albums...

 (Big Star) and Pete Thomas

Pete Thomas

Pete Thomas is best known as the longtime drummer for Elvis Costello. Tom Waits has referred to him as "one of the best rock drummers alive".-Career:...

 (Elvis Costello

Elvis Costello

Elvis Costello , born Declan Patrick MacManus, is an English singer-songwriter. He came to prominence as an early participant in London's pub rock scene in the mid-1970s and later became associated with the punk/New Wave genre. Steeped in word play, the vocabulary of Costello's lyrics is broader...

's backing band). On guitar were Richard Lloyd (Television

Television (band)

Television was an American rock band, formed in New York City in 1973. They are best known for the album Marquee Moon and widely regarded as one of the founders of "punk" and New Wave music. Television was part of the early 1970s New York underground rock scene, along with bands like the Patti...

), Robert Quine

Robert Quine

Robert Wolfe Quine was an American guitarist, known for his innovative guitar solos.A native of Akron, Ohio, Quine worked with a wide range of musicians, though he himself remained relatively unknown in comparison...

 (Voidoids) and Ivan Julian (Voidoids). Additionally, renowned session keyboardist Nicky Hopkins

Nicky Hopkins

Nicholas Christian "Nicky" Hopkins was an English pianist and organist.He recorded and performed on noted British and American popular music recordings of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s as a session musician....

 appeared, and Byron Berline

Byron Berline

Byron Berline is an American fiddle player.-Biography:Berline started playing the fiddle at age five and quickly developed a talent for it. In 1965, he recorded the album Pickin' and Fiddlin with the Dillards...

 contributed fiddle to "The Ugly Truth".

The track "Intro" is a clip from the movie Caligula

Caligula (film)

Caligula is a 1979 American-produced Italian biographical film directed by Tinto Brass, with additional scenes filmed by Giancarlo Lui and Penthouse founder Bob Guccione. The film concerns the rise and fall of Roman Emperor Gaius Caesar Germanicus, better known as Caligula...

featuring Malcolm McDowell

Malcolm McDowell

Malcolm McDowell is an English actor with a career spanning over forty years.McDowell is principally known for his roles in the controversial films If...., O Lucky Man!, A Clockwork Orange and Caligula...

.

Five different colored versions of the album cover were produced: yellow, blue, green, orange and purple.

The name of the album is based on the arcade game Altered Beast

Altered Beast

Altered Beast is a 1988 beat 'em up arcade game developed and manufactured by Sega. The game is set in Ancient Greece, and follows a centurion who is resurrected by Zeus to rescue his daughter Athena, and to do so become able to turn into beasts such as the werewolf with usage of power-ups...

. Sweet has declared the title meant "whatever is inside you that someday might explode, and maybe you don't know it's there", which he found similar to the game, where "you have to find these little power-up

Power-up

In computer and video games, power-ups are objects that instantly benefit or add extra abilities to the game character as a game mechanic. This is in contrast to an item, which may or may not have a benefit and can be used at a time chosen by the player...

 things, and when you eat them you become the Altered Beast, this other creature that's really powerful and violent".

Originally, Sweet wanted to use the logo of the Japanese delivery company Yamato Transport

Yamato Transport

is one of Japan's largest door-to-door delivery service companies with market share of 41%, competing closely with Sagawa Express and Nippon Express...

 on the cover of the album, but was denied permission; Sweet has described the dinosaur logo as a "consolation prize".

Track listing

All tracks composed by Matthew Sweet, except where indicated.

1. "Dinosaur Act" - 4:05
2. "Devil With the Green Eyes" - 4:43
3. "The Ugly Truth" - 3:18
4. "Time Capsule" - 3:56
5. "Someone to Pull the Trigger" - 3:55
6. "Knowing People" - 4:25
7. "Life Without You" - 2:18
8. "Intro" (excerpt from the movie "Caligula"
   Caligula (film)
   Caligula is a 1979 American-produced Italian biographical film directed by Tinto Brass, with additional scenes filmed by Giancarlo Lui and Penthouse founder Bob Guccione. The film concerns the rise and fall of Roman Emperor Gaius Caesar Germanicus, better known as Caligula...
   
   ) - 0:46
9. "Ugly Truth Rock" - 2:58
10. "Do It Again" - 3:33
11. "In Too Deep" - 3:54
12. "Reaching Out" - 4:00
13. "Falling" - 4:50
14. "What Do You Know?" - 4:27
15. "Evergreen" - 4:23