I'm not a big alt-country person. I own exactly zero Wilco albums (actually, make that 0.5). However, I had little control over what kind of stuff showed up at the radio station back in 1998 and even less resistance when it came to hoarding free CD's from that period, hence I still own a bumper crop of oddball music from the late 1990's. And that brings us to Varnaline.
From my quick research notes (Allmusic is a much better source than Wikipedia when dealing in more obscure artists), Varnaline appears to be yet another band that was unable to survive the great label bloodletting that hit around 2000. They had a little clutch of albums in the late 1990's that score points with the critics, but after their label, Zero Hour, died following the release of this album, only one more release followed, and from all accounts it is primarily the solo album of frontman Anders Parker under the Varnaline moniker. Although the band is long gone, Parker continues to perform as a solo artist, still resting comfortably somewhere between Americana and alt-country. While I probably won't rush out and get any more of their albums, Sweet Life provided a nice enough soundtrack for my drive into work.
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