[4] The album was released in the United States on September 20, 2011, and features tracks co-written with other artists for the very first time, including Ryan Tedder, Butch Walker, and Andrew Frampton.

The lead single, "Not Over You", co-written and produced by Ryan Tedder, was released to mainstream radio and to iTunes in May and was a chart success.

The album finds DeGraw experimenting with new sounds, which resulted in a potent, swaggering strut, both musically and lyrically, on sexually charged songs like the R&B-infused "Sweeter" and "Radiation."

The racier moments are balanced out by more emotionally transparent songs like the vigorous "Not Over You", and the uplifting "Soldier" and "You Know Where I'm At," which convey vulnerability while still managing to feel distinctly masculine.

[6] He decided to work with co-writers for the first time as a way to broaden his horizons, such as Ryan Tedder, who also co-wrote and produced "Sweeter", and Andrew Frampton.

He also worked with a host of producers including Butch Walker, Eric Rosse, and Ron Aniello.

I was able to tap into things I do live, dabbling with some of that late 1960s, early 1970s R&B stuff; I was able to record all the styles of music that I like and put them on one album.

DeGraw told that songs like "Radiation" and the title track "embrace some of what would either be considered primal or imperfect," and that "for a moment, it's not bad to feature reality versus romance on a record.

[9] Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic rated it 3.5 out of 5 stars and wrote that "Sweeter benefits from greater textures in his surroundings, stronger hooks in the melodies, and, for once, a sensibility that doesn’t sacrifice the present for the sake of paying respect to the past.

DeGraw is an excellent singer, with a hint of grit in his tenor that tips power ballads like "Soldier" toward soul music.

"[14] Melissa Maerz wrote a positive review for Entertainment Weekly, saying that "there's a half-dozen good ones on his fourth full-length Sweeter (check the title track).

"[12] Ken Capobianco wrote a more mixed review for The Boston Globe, stating, "The results are predictably formulaic, as seen on their co-writing effort, 'Not Over You'.

"[17] musicOMH's Andy Baber wrote that "Sweeter is often an enjoyable listen, one that will appease his One Tree Hill fanbase.

"[13] On the other hand, Irving Tan of Sputnikmusic criticized the album, giving it a score of one-and-a-half out of five and saying that it "ends up passing by in a haze of indifference because, even though it has all the gilded sheen of a pop product engineered and marketed to perfection, at its core it is trite, grossly unmemorable, and unmistakably insincere – even by vanilla pop’s relatively shallow standards.