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From The Desk Of Cardinal’s Eric Matthews: Everything Everything

After an 18-year absence, Cardinal has finally returned with Hymns (Fire), its sophomore album. To rabid fans of the bi-coastal duo who’d all but given up hope of ever hearing a sequel to their masterful self-titled 1994 debut, that freshman year must have seemed interminable. When its first longplayer appeared on an indie-rock scene buzzing with grunge and punk, it was such a breath of fresh air, some people became giddy from lack of oxygen. To those without a sense of history, it was as though Richard Davies and Eric Matthews had discovered something that had never been done before. Harpsichords and baroque trumpets on a pop album? Preposterous! We love it. No one knows better than Davies and Matthews, themselves, both men with a sense of perspective, that you only have to dig out your copy of the Beatles’ Magical Mystery Tour album to hear “Penny Lane,” awash in baroque trumpet. Or listen to the two LPs by the Left Banke, a mid-’60s combo that hit it big with “Walk Away Renee” and “Pretty Ballerina,” for a hit of string quartets and harpsichords. Not to say that Matthews and Davies didn’t create something perfectly wonderful, both then and now. The duo will also be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our brand new Q&A with them.

Matthews: There, that’s me being hip for once in my life. Everything Everything is a new band that debuted (Man Alive) in 2010. They are the best band in the world, easily. Not since Casanova by the Divine Comedy have I put a record on over and over again, to the point it bugs the people in my life. These are the most wonderfully complicated songs that I have ever heard. There are brief moments where you can hear that they listened to, loved and understood XTC, and wonder if perhaps they are Spookey Ruben fans. But that is as far as any brief little reference points can go. They are totally original and, I believe, in the act of inventing something entirely new. The lyrics are a machine gun of words and emotional ideas I struggle to understand, but I love a good puzzle. It’s mostly the music, handled by four of the world’s greatest musicians (and wow, what a singer). The record is full of bombast and musical thrashing but there is also great tenderness. Listen to a song called “Two For Nero.” It is a harpsichord-based mid-tempo thriller: chamber music. I am kinda hoping that the Mayan calendar is right, just in case the follow-up isn’t any good.

Video after the jump.