Matt Hales, known to most as Aqualung, is a British child prodigy.
According to Wikipedia:
He wanted to be - and indeed was - a musician from an early age, although he said in a BBC interview that there were a couple of years when he was about 12 that he wanted to be a stuntman. At the age of 16, he was awarded a scholarship to study music composition at Winchester College. By the age of 17, he'd written his first symphony entitled Life Cycle.
And it shows. His piano oriented music features vast symphonies and reverb riddled guitars.
This album is his first North American release, a compilation of his older songs and his newer songs.
Of course, like a lot of new musicians, he gets his start from a Volkswagon commercial.
Strange & Beautiful (I'll Put A Spell On You is just that such song. Opening with a sampled, lo-fi drum beat, and moving into a tremelo piano progression. Hale's voice is much like Thom Yorke's, but rarely ventures to the notes Thom reaches for. His vocals fit the song perfectly, a cajun, if you may, British song. The lyrics are okay, and the chorus is addictive.
The second track,
Falling Out Of Love, opens with something that sounds like disco meets Radiohead. Gospel background singers and chime riddled, it breaks down to just Hales, his piano, and a single bass drum. The vocals carry very slowly, like a vast wasteland. The chorus contains the disco elements, and kind of ruins it. Reminds me of "Climbing Up The Walls" very much so.
This next song saved the album at first for me.
Good Times Gonna Come opens with a simple, single note piano progression. Hales's "It's alright, it's alright" chills my spine every time. Then, out of nowhere, at around 0:50.
BOOM.
The song explodes into a distorted vocal, guitar riffed, heavy chorus. Afterwards, a simple guitar, two note riff accompanies Hales. At 2:20, the piano drops, replaced by a highly wah and delayed guitar and organ. Hales goes melodic (for what he can), and then once again, guitars echo the soundscapes he creates.
Brighter Than Sunshine is arguably Aqualung's most wellknown song. It's the one that gets airplay on VH1 and as featured in the film "A Lot Like Love". It's also one of the best tracks on the album. The "break beat" piano at the beginning caught me immediatly, and the notable inclusion of the acoustic rhythem. After the first chorus, Hale's previous work as a composer comes out with violen movements and a chorus of singers. If any song were to be attributed to another artist, it would be this. It bleeds Coldplay.
For a bit, the album takes a downward turn for a bit. One of the more experimental songs,
Breaking Ny Heart features the rhythem as sampled watery noises and samples of Hale's voice as beats. For the chorus, it turns into more of a Keane type song, with Hales hitting high notes, soundling like Chris Martin on "Fix You". Its a good song, but is a bit unbalanced. It's one of those tracks that grows on you over time.
Tounge-Tied seems to be a more lyrical and musical experiment. The piano gets repetitve, just as the vocals do. The lyrics go one word at a time on a line until the chorus, giving the effect of being "tounge tied".
The end adds those catchy break beat samples, but doesn't make up for the whole song.
Left Behind is an extremely hard rocker. Full of guitar chords, and a simple organ line. It sounds like The Who meets Radiohead. One of the catchier songs on the album, albeit simple.
You Turn Me Around sounds very Beatles influenced. From the opening "Let It Be" type intro, to the phenomenal lyrics:
Quote:
The end it was the end the sirens were pulling him down
And his heart was cold so very cold you believe it might never have beat
When the sun sets around me my daydreams confound me
And the long nights surrounds me
You turn me around
You turn me around
|
If I Fall, musicially, sounds like the Shins. But there's always Hale's Yorke-like voice. This song sounds like "The Bends" meets "The Hand That Feeds", with the vocal and lyrical prowess of Radiohead and the techinal, synth stuff of NIN.
And now, the star of the show in my opinion.
Easier To Lie is my favorite song off of the whole album. From the true lyrics about lieing and truth, to the simple piano, to the fills with chrous singers, this caps the album as a whole. If one song were to represent Hale's style, this would easily be it.
And the album takes one of it's dives towards the low near the end.
Extra Ordinary Thingp is probably the weakest track on the album. Sounds like opera, and doesn't get me in the way the other songs did.
The closer, the longest track,
Another Little Hole is an excellent closer. Like Street Spirit to the Bends, this is what it does for the album. The most musicially diverese song, reminds me EXACTLY of what it feels to be on the highway, riding a bus away from the rest of your life. The vocal harmonies between Hales and the background singers in phenomenal, and builds up the song till the very last piano progression.
An amazing album, one of the best of 2005.
Reccomended Downloads:
- Good Times Gonna Come
- Brighther Than Sunshine
- Easier To Lie
- Another Little Hole
