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The Imagination Stage
(Empyrean)
(NODEPRESSION.NET) -- Aptly titled, this set of lush romantic pop is symphonic in scope, from the writing to the arrangements to the performances. While there's a surface gloss, there are nicely barbed elements throughout, and the cover's rough-hewn portraiture even underscores that point. Eric Matthews is no stranger to this terrain, having made his mark on the front-line of the return to orchestral pop that harks back to Jimmy Webb and Brian Wilson -- first with Cardinal and then with a solo career that commenced in the mid-'90s. Matthews played all the instruments (with the exception of the strings, which he scored) and also double-tracked his voice on most songs. His musical inventiveness keeps preciousness and bombast a continent away, though his lyrical inclinations can be cloying, wearing a poetic heart on their sleeve as they dart in and out of the perfectly articulated musical landscape.
-- DAVID GREENBERGER
Copyright c. 2008 No Depression Inc. and/or David Greenberger.