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Album Review

Cardinal
Hymns Fire Records

Article written by Ged M - Feb 1, 2012

Cardinal: Hymns

When Cardinal’s seminal first album was released in 1994, its chamber pop stood in valiant opposition to grunge, which was then covering the land like a swarm of plaid-clad locusts. Eighteen years later, with grunge a slightly whiffy memory, Cardinal return with different songs but the same sound. There are elaborately orchestrated arrangements and an assortment of instruments, courtesy of Eric Matthews - who spent some of those 18 years as an arranger for Elliott Smith and the Dandy Warhols among others - complementing Richard Davies’ poetic, melodic beatlesque pop songs. Just like the chorus of ‘Carbolic Smoke Ball’ - “I want you to change but stay the same” – the feel of the record is simultaneously old and new; it’s nostalgia trying to live in the now.

I can’t fault them for going back to what worked before. The songs seem to fit a certain pattern – mostly mid-tempo and densely layered – but ‘Surviving Paris’ is a filigreed instrumental that suggests a future in scoring art movies while ‘Love Like Rain’ has the feel of whimsical English psych-pop. It’s pleasurable but nothing quite stops you in your tracks. What does engage you are the games they play. Neither the first song, ‘Northern Soul’, nor the last, ‘Radio Birdman’, sound like their respective nominals; the former is baroque harpsichord pop and the latter a pristine rhythmic ritual ruffled by sobs of Eric Matthews' trumpet. And, bizarrely, do the lyrics of ‘Carbolic Smoke Ball’ (written and played by an Australian and an American) really refer to the Blair-Brown Granita agreement over when the former would step down for the latter?

Back in ‘94 they sounded very special against a sludge of noisy riffing; this time they’re showing off a more carefully crafted pop in a series of demonstration pieces that sound impressive without really standing out.

Links:
http://www.firerecords.com/site/index.php?page=artists&artistid=00000000638