THIS WEEK ON OUTQ: MATTHEW SWEET, JOAN OSBORNE, THE VERVE AND JULIANA HATFIELD

I'm excited to be returning to the OutQ In The Morning Show With Larry Flick after two weeks off - first for Larry/Cynthia/Keith's vacation, and then for mine. This week, I want to talk about a few artists who were big for a while in the '90s, and then, for whatever reason, the media got tired of talking about them.

First off is Matthew Sweet, one of my favorite singer/songwriters. In the past few years, he has released a duets album with Susanna Hoffs of The Bangles (Under The Covers Vol. 1), released an album with a one-off group The Thorns (which also included solo artists Pete Droge and Shawn Mullins) and quietly released two solo albums, Kimi Ga Suki and Living Things. His new album is Sunshine Lies: I've downloaded the title track, which I like but don't yet love. (I pre-ordered the album, and it hasn't come in the mail yet!) Matthew's '90s albums Girlfriend, Altered Beast and 100% Fun are three of my favorite albums, but I don't think his albums since then have been quite as solid.

I've loved Joan Osborne since the first moment I heard "St. Teresa," the lead track from her Relish album. It took her a long time to follow it up, and by then, the world had moved on. The press were already calling her a one-hit wonder. But the follow-up, Righteous Love, was a really good album. After that she did a covers album called How Sweet It Is which was wonderful but unsurprisingly ignored. Since then she's done a sort of country-ish album Pretty Little Stranger which had lots of great songs, another soul music album Breakfast in Bed, and now she's released Little Wild One. I don't like this one as much as her recent albums yet, but I'm only starting to listen to it.

I saw The Verve on their reunion tour earlier this year, and was knocked out by how great they were. I like their new single "Love Is Noise" from their reunion album Forth, and I'm looking forward to hearing the rest of the album.

I got really into Juliana Hatfield in the '90s when she released Become What You Are. But I didn't like the followup, and kind of lost track of her since then. But I heard her new song, "This Lonely Love," and really like it.

Actually the two things that I like best that are new this week are by B.B. King and Motorhead, but I'll have to write about them later on.