Blue Sky On Mars (1997) is the sixth album by Alternative Rock musician Matthew Sweet, who emerged in 1991 as the leading figure of the American Power Pop revival. Like his British counterparts Teenage Fanclub, Sweet adhered to traditional songcraft, yet subverted the form by adding noisy post-punk guitar and flourishes of country-rock, resulting in an amalgam of the Beatles, Big Star, R.E.M., and Neil Young.

For the next five years, as Alternative Rock was the dominant commercial force in Rock & Roll, Sweet was a popular concert attraction, and his reputation as an alternative Pop singer/songwriter was at its peak: his next two records, Altered Beast (1993) and 100% Fun (1995), were both critically acclaimed and relatively successful albums, with the latter reaching gold status and making many year-end best-of lists. Running up to his sixth album Blue Sky On Mars, multi-instrumentalist Sweet worked with musicians and producers known for their work with Lou Reed, Richard Hell, Television, Pearl Jam, Stone Temple Pilots, Fleetwood Mac, and more.

Produced by Brendan O’Brien, with its lead single “Where You Get Love” and a strong album opener “Come To California”, Blue Sky On Mars got right on the good foot. The cover of the album features an image by Viking 1, the first spacecraft to land on Mars; the album’s liner notes include additional imagery of the planet’s landscape as taken by the spacecraft on July 20, 1976. The text on the cover was done by artist Roger Dean, best known for his work on album covers for bands such as Yes. The song “Hollow” was featured in the film The Game, and “Come to California” was featured in the film Nancy Drew.