Ian Matthews
Album: If You Saw Thro' My Eyes/Tigers Will Survive
Label: Esoteric
Tracks: 24
Website: http://www.iainmatthews.com

These two companion single-disc remastered reissues together present the first fruits of Ian's solo career, recorded at the beginning of the 70s in a heady rush of songwriting creativity shortly after the demise of the Matthews' Southern Comfort band. Ian's honest new liner note reminisces and illuminates, and it's clear that he still views much of the material therein with considerable affection despite its occasional "quite opaque but rich in visuals" naïvete. If You Saw Thro' My Eyes is a strong set mixing a clutch of telling originals (pick of these being Little Known, Never Ending and You Couldn't Lose) with a good choice of covers, among them two Richard Fariña songs (Morgan The Pirate and Reno, Nevada, the latter familiar from Fairport days). Ian's support crew included Andy Roberts, Richard Thompson, Sandy Denny, Tim Renwick, Keith Tippett, Pat Donaldson and Gerry Conway… nuff said, quality assured! The whole album sounds great, with the remastering coming up trumps and all the original artwork retained - and completists can also celebrate the timely restoration of the track that had been omitted from the LP's previous (1993) CD reissue: the side-straddling two-part miniature Hinge, which is still worth having.

Tigers Will Survive is admittedly a less consistent affair, although it still contains some high-calibre session playing and a number of fine songs (Morning Song and Hope You Know in particular remaining firm favourites with Ian himself even now). Hindsight may not have been entirely kind to the album, which was recorded in two halves either side of Ian's first American tour - and the formation and first recording of Plainsong - and which Ian himself has tended to unfairly disparage as rather second-best, but listening to it again after a passage of time it doesn't seem as inconsistent after all, and recognising the impossibility of attaining perfection is the key to its appreciation in the end. Five of its eleven tracks are covers, these including another Fairport-era revisit (Eric Andersen's Close The Door Lightly When You Go) and a fun (Bunch-style) a cappella runthrough of Da Doo Ron Ron. One or two of the new Matthews originals sometimes appear to lack a sense of direction, but overall there aren't any letdowns on the tracklist. Support crew-wise, it's interesting to find Richard Thompson (under his Neville J. Flywheel alias) handling accordion (rather than guitar) duties - he turns in some gorgeous tex-mex-style flourishes on The Only Dancer! Amongst the other musician collaborators we find Messrs Renwick and Roberts, Bruce Thomas, Timi Donald and John Wilson. As for bonus material, the obvious choice (the 1973 single A-side Devil In Disguise) is reprised from the earlier CD reissue mentioned above.

David Kidman