RSSIan Matthews [extended]
- Matthews' Southern Comfort [Decca, 1970] C+
- Second Spring [Decca, 1970] C
- Later That Same Year [Decca, 1971] B-
- Tigers Will Survive [Vertigo, 1972] B-
- Some Days You Eat the Bear, and Some Days the Bear Eats You [Elektra, 1974] C+
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Consumer Guide Reviews:
Matthews' Southern Comfort: Matthews' Southern Comfort [Decca, 1970]
In which Ian Matthews splits from Fairport Convention, hires a (good) pedal steel player, and sings like an angel. As you know, angels keep their intelligence discreetly concealed--no one would suspect that the song that goes "Alright, everything's alright" bears the title "A Commercial Proposition," or that the drip who begs "Please Be My Friend" is off his rocker. The sobbing overlaid on Steve Barlby's "The Watch" does hint openly at irony. But what can the man who wrote "Colorado Springs Eternal" know from irony? C+
Matthews' Southern Comfort: Second Spring [Decca, 1970]
Disappointed though I am by the folky localism cum chauvinism of recent Pentangle and Fairport, Matthews's mid-Atlantic compromise is worse. Basically, he's James Taylor--without the whine, which I'd consider a real improvement if I could imagine Taylor "interpreting" the bitter "Jinkson Johnson" so bright and upbeat it sounded like Poco. C
Matthews' Southern Comfort: Later That Same Year [Decca, 1971]
This one really is pretty--except when guitarist Carl Barnwell gives him love letters to read (long-winded, too: "Sylvie" runs 6:08 and "For Melanie" 6:50), he selects very lissome melodies. And no dumb lyrics, either. But when you're so single-minded about singing pretty it's hard to convince anyone you care what the words mean. B-
Tigers Will Survive [Vertigo, 1972]
I know that Matthews (Fairport Convention, Matthews Southern Comfort) is one of the best acoustic-type performers around. I enjoy him at clubs. But they tell me that all the tunes on the record catch up to you, and after listening a dozen times I'm up to two--"Da Doo Ron Ron," which had a head start, and "The Only Dancer." B-
Some Days You Eat the Bear, and Some Days the Bear Eats You [Elektra, 1974]
This is Matthews's eighth album of the decade (fifth solo), and though people still tell me he's deserving, I think he epitomizes the homogeneity of the new (country-rock) schlock. If the proof of his acuity is his covers of such songs as "Propinquity" and "Blue Blue Day" and "Da Doo Ron Ron" and (on this LP) "Ol' 55" and "Dirty Work" and "Do I Still Figure in Your Life" and "I Don't Wanna Talk About It," the proof of his soft edges is that the originals are always more idiosyncratic. C+