Mr Sweet

Mr Sweet is a four-piece from London making music for people who think the best pop songs have at least one chord change that makes you raise an eyebrow. Three of the band met at music college, drawn together by an unhealthy appreciation for extended harmonies and the kind of grooves that sound effortless but absolutely aren’t. Two albums in, the addition of a fourth member for Parallelogram completed something that had been missing — a tighter unit with more to say and better ways of saying it. The references are worn openly: Steely Dan’s obsessive perfectionism, the melodic instincts of Hall & Oates, Todd Rundgren’s refusal to stay in one lane. But Mr Sweet aren’t a tribute act or a nostalgia project. The songwriting is sharp, the arrangements are dense without being cluttered, and the hooks land even if you couldn’t care less about what the rhythm section is doing underneath them. If you’ve ever wished FM radio still sounded like 1977, or you just want something that sounds good with the windows down, Mr Sweet will meet you wherever you are.