Rating:   6 Ratings     12345  

Cardinal Cardinal Empyrean Records

      The self-titled album, originally released in 1994, has been re-released now eleven years later under Empyrean Records, following the musical accomplishments of both Eric Matthews and Richard Davies.

      A brief overview will show that Davies, who was in Australian band The Moles in the early nineties, met up in Boston with friend and musician Bob Fay who introduced him to Matthews. All three men, with their pining for all things music, came together to listen to records and jam. Somewhere in that timeframe, Cardinal took to the skies. Fay left in late 1993 shortly after Cardinal’s release of EP Toy Bell, leaving the remaining two band members to take matters into their own hands.

      After much collaboration and musical input, the record was released, and not much later, the band broke up due to a differentiation in opinions, and both men became solo, still followed closely by their supportive fans.

      The album speaks the nineties, and the day-and-night effect of Davies and Matthews somehow works, most of the time. The former holds a bellowing, more deep tone to his throat, and Matthews has the softer, gentler vocals. The two combine and play off of each other, but the mesh of the guitars and drums seem to make it sound all right.

      Some of the tracks are tied-up in the fading way that reprise tracks are, and ‘Singing to the Sunshine’ does just that, while the duo sing melodically. In their time, they were their own Lennon/McCartney matchup, building off of each other’s talents to bring out the best in each other until their unforeseeable disbandment of their partnership. Other times it’s classical, like Bowie and Bing.

      There’s a shade of Cat Stevens in ‘Silver Machines’ with those whisper vocals like he’s speaking to only you. Then those harmonics kick in again, and the Beatles’ influential waves come pouring in again.

      The bonus material, which trails after the album proper, contains a variety of clips and demos from the cutting room (including Fay). Included in this are ‘Forest Theme’-- a cheerful forty-three second piece straight from The Nutcracker, a single out-take, retro track ‘Poolside ‘75’ and demos of ‘If You Believe in Christmas Trees’, ‘You’ve Lost Me There’, ‘Tough Guy Tactics’ and ‘Say The Words Impossible’. Outside of the music and into the album sleeve are detailed liner notes written by both Davies and Matthews discussing the band’s history, making for an insightful read.

      For original fans of Cardinal, the notes and extra tracks will be a pleasant gift from the band into your album collection. And for fans who may have recently discovered Cardinal’s past work, or have stumbled upon Davies, Matthews or both, will appreciate this synergy of an album. It’s a nice little piece of their timeline to latch onto.

-Arie Musil 05/19/05