"Blue Sky on Mars" might seem like an odd title for Matthew Sweet's new album, but it's an apt one. Sounding, as it does, like the name of one of the vintage science fiction movies Sweet loves, the title evokes the visual equivalent of the Technicolor sound Sweet has crafted on his last three albums. It's also a telling metaphor for his best work, which mixes the otherworldly with the familiar.

To prepare for the March 25 release of "Blue Sky," which was recorded in Atlanta with producer Brendan O'Brien, Sweet played a 20-date mini-tour to test his new songs and re-acquaint himself with his older material. After a recent show at the Elbow Room, a 400-capacity rock club in Columbia, South Carolina, Sweet took time out from the tour to talk about the album; how divorce led to his 1991 breakthrough album, "Girlfriend;" and the curative powers of cortisone shots.

RS.com: How does it feel to be out on the road again? It seemed like you were really enjoying yourself up there tonight.

Matthew Sweet: It's actually been feeling really good, but last night I was very sick. I didn't want to cancel any dates on this tour, so I finally had to get a cortisone shot just to play. Before, it was hard to cover up for the bad voice, and I just kept getting sicker and sicker. So they finally gave me a cortisone shot, right in the ass (laughs).

You've been previewing some of your new songs. What's your assessment of how they sound live?

It's kind of hard to say. But I think this new record translates really well live, actually. The last record ["100% Fun"] was more complex, and there was all sorts of stuff going on in the songs that was a little harder to capture onstage. This new CD is simpler, I think. Maybe more straightforward.

On "Blue Sky on Mars," you play most of the instruments yourself. Did that require a significant departure in terms of how you wrote the songs?

On my records I usually play a lot of the stuff. But, yeah, on this record I play all the guitars. I just hope that people like the songs and don't miss the lead guitar too much (laughs sheepishly).

How do you think "Blue Sky" fits in with your other albums?

I think this one's more fun than "100% Fun." It's funny, because people saw that album cover and thought it was going to be a lot lighter than "Altered Beast." But then --

They heard songs like "Sick of Myself."

Yeah, right (laughs).

Do you, at this point, consciously approach making an album in a certain way, so that it has a particular feel to it?

It's funny, because even with my last four records, I don't think they were that huge a departure from my first one. But, regarding your second question, I think it's really a good thing when you don't think too much when you're recording, because you want the songs to come naturally. And so far, I think it's worked pretty well.

Let's backtrack and talk about "Girlfriend," because I'm always struck by how radically different that album sounds from your previous work. It seems like such a sharp shift in direction, from the '60s-era stereo separation to the songwriting, which is so much more focused.

There were a few factors. I was sort of giving up on the idea of ever finding an audience and I just decided to start writing songs I wanted to hear because I really had no audience. And I became kind of self-centered about it. But you know, we had a lot of the same players we had on "Earth."

That's what I think is so interesting, because the sound on "Girlfriend" is a lot fiercer.

Well, also at that time, I had just split up with my first wife, so that meant I could move a drum set into the living room, and it didn't matter if I had microphone stands and amps everywhere cluttering up the room. And I recorded the demos for "Girlfriend" that way -- really loud and noisy. And the record was an outcome of those demos.

So basically, you lost a wife and gained a record contract. One more question: You still got that Dodge Challenger [pictured on 1993's "Altered Beast"]?

(Smiles) Still got the Challenger. But you know, it's hard because I moved to Los Angeles and there's not really many places to open it up on the road, because you've gotta blow out the carbon. But yeah, the Cha