Back in the early 1980s, the synthesizer was lauded for its ability to reproduce symphonic textures with a simple push of a button. Misguided pundits hastily assumed that rock musicians would never again have to pick up an unusual instrument or hire an orchestral musician. It was simply too easy -- and who would expect a rock musician to not take the easy way out?

Well, guess again. It's the early '90s, and everything we know is wrong.

Eric Matthews' solo debut is filled with natural textures: trumpet, harpsichord, piano, violin, viola and tenor sax. Rest assured: Guitar, bass and drums are still used -- they're just harder to find. Initially, the music comes across as a blend of lost late-60's classics like Love's Forever Changes and the Zombies' Odyssey and Oracle (Matthews' laid-back vocal delivery owes more than a nod to the Zombies' Colin Blunstone). I say "initially" because repeated listens to It's Heavy in Here open up the comparisons to Robert Kirby's beautiful orchestration of English folk hero Nick Drake and even John Cale's haunting arrangements of Nico's solo material.

Yet, It's Heavy in Here remains singular in the current alternative-rock sweepstakes. Although the tendency is to call this music "pop" -- and there are moments, especially in "Fanfare," "Poisons Will Pass Me" and "Sincere Sensation," during which that classic '60's Top 40 radio appeal is exuded -- most of the musical references are much more obscure. Vocals are mixed low, the arrangements are often murky, and the material tends to be moodily low-key. Even after repeated plays, little more than a song's atmosphere stays with you. Matthews' mood music, however, is a welcome respite from the ongoing grunge-by-numbers that is being pumped out these days. It's Heavy in Here doesn't sound like anyone else's record. How many other albums can you say that about?

    -- ROB O'CONNOR


Once in a great while you come across an album that seems close to perfect. You know the variety, you play it over and over and over, discover new things, revel in it with the certainty that you'll be hearing it often through the years. Nick Drake did that for me. So did John Martyn, Robert Wyatt -- all velvety music for the heart.

That feeling had been harder to come by lately, so when the first notes of Eric Matthews' It's Heavy in Here tumbled from the speakers, I fell in love again. It is, quite simply, the Northwest album of the year, a glowing, intimate record.

    -- Chris Nickson


"Paul McCartney, Brian Wilson, Burt Bacharach, Barry Gibb." Eric Matthews, whose debut solo album, It's Heavy in Here, was just released by Sub Pop, rattles off the list of his prime influences casually, as if he knows their work like the back of his hand. Upon further reflection, he adds "Stevie Wonder is actually huge on that list," and a little later, "Andy Partridge (of XTC) certainly needs to be added to that list because he's so... He's not a copy artist, because I think those songs are so highly original, but they call to reference the past so directly. Maybe I do that too, I'm not sure."

A few listens through It's Heavy in Here and his one album with Cardinal (a collaborative project between him and songwriter Richard Davies) answer that question with a resounding yes, qualified by the same limitation Matthews bestows upon Partridge: that his songs are too original to be mere imitation.

    -- LYDIA ANDERSON