Eric Matthews’ lush, uneasy pop

Eric Matthews, the Seattle-based composer/singer and one-half of the short-lived Cardinal, has a new album out on Empyrean Records which I liked a lot. Here’s the review which ran late last week in PopMatters.Eric MatthewsThe Imagination Stage(Empyrean)US release date: 22 January 2008UK release date: 21 January 2008by Jennifer KellyLush orchestral pop turned ominousIn his review of the 2005 reissue of Cardinal, the underground classic collaboration between Richard Davies of the Moles and then unknown songwriter and arranger Eric Matthews, Jon Dale of Dusted noted, “It is essential to acknowledge the importance of Eric Matthews here: Davies songs had never sounded as rich as they did on ‘You’ve Lost Me There’ and ‘Silver Machines,’ thanks in great part to Matthews’ lush elliptical arrangements. That his post-Cardinal solo records would be so unrelenting gorgeous is no surprise.” Here then is the fifth in Matthews’ exercises in “unrelenting gorgeousness”, the baroque but dreamily understated Imagination Stage, which wraps fragile melodies and unusual, jazz-tinged chord structures in diaphanously lovely arrangements. Since his much-lauded partnership with Davies, Matthews has had the usual share of music industry frustrations. Bumped from Sub Pop after two solo records, he did not put out another album for eight years. He did session work for bands including Tahiti 80, Ivy, the Dandy Warhols, and Mark Eitzel in the long interim. In 2005, he joined up with current label Empyrean records to release the EP Six Kinds of Passion Looking for an Exit, the full-length Foundation Sounds in 2006, and now Imagination Stage. More here: http://www.popmatters.com/pm/music/reviews/51729/eric-matthews-the-imagination-stage/The MySpace:http://www.myspace.com/ericmatthewsmusic