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: Making music is a kind of architectural practice, and I have always seen the act of design and the building of actual objects much like the making of good music. You take individual properties and put them in a certain order to create something strong, sensible and, if done right, beautiful. So, with an orchestra or a great ’60s or ’70s pop band on the turntable I spent a few thousand hours on the floor “playing” with Legos. At first, I would build the various space ships from the instruction sheets, and then later, cars, helicopters, bridges and boats. It’s like learning to read music on the way to writing your own. I ended up designing my own big mechanical beasts with the red and yellow beams, the gray gears and rivets, each build more elaborate than the last. To this day, I get out my massive collection once per year or so and try to top the last thing I built.
Video after the jump.
