Eric Matthews is well-known as one of the top purveyors of "orchestral pop," a media-defined form of tasteful pop music that mixes catchy three-minute songs with Baroque arrangements and subtle classical orchestration. As half of Cardinal—the band he briefly shared with underappreciated singer/songwriter Richard Davies—Matthews made an impressive sleeper album, but he really found his voice with It's Heavy In Here, his enormously acclaimed 1995 solo debut. Now, with The Lateness Of The Hour, Matthews does his best job yet of bringing shimmering pop hooks to the forefront of the mix, while using strings, horns and organs as supplements rather than replacements for fundamentally sound pop songwriting. Sure, there's a gorgeous classical arrangement at the close of "To Clear The Air," but it serves merely to deepen the grace of an already appealing pop track. Matthews' soft tenor never really evolves beyond a smoothly mannered whisper, but that's the only thing that doesn't constantly evolve throughout The Lateness Of The Hour: Musically, it's always throwing new tricks at you, yet it sounds remarkably restrained while doing so. It's one of the freshest, most inventive pop records of the year, and it easily transcends mere novelty value.