It's Heavy in Here
Orchestrated pop hasn't been much in vogue since the late '60s when bands such as Love, the Zombies, the Beach Boys, and the Beatles tooled around with instruments usually found in an conservatory. But with his conservative, finely tailored sartorial sense, Eric Matthews hasn't let that stop him from crafting an unusually good piece of retro-pop in the mid-1990s. Once a member of Cardinal with the Moles's Richard Davies, Matthews indulges in the sort of atmospheric pop somewhere between "Good Vibrations" and dry martini lounge music--and without sounding contrived or self-consciously cool.--Rob O'Connor