The Aqualung Thread

[nightsurfer]

I love Aqualung' date='i only have the album"aqualung"which has strange and beautiful on it!!Its an amazing album,Good times gonna come is my favourite :) whats the other album like??[/quote']

 

 

 

I've got the first one. Bit creepy, if you ask me.

[cold_kitty]

^^ aren't those two albums both the same, just different covers? i have the first album posted there and the other one (i feel like it's self titled) the cover has a scribbly drawing of matt hales on it.

 

both are pretty good, but i wish i had known he would release a US/CAN album with the best of both 8 months after i bought them. coulda saved a shitload. import albums oh too damn pricey.

[nightsurfer]

^Yeah, I think one of them's for the Japan market or something like that.

[cold_kitty]

i think aqualung and ben folds should tour together.

[~Twisted_Logic~]

I loved "Strange and Beautiful" and went out and bought the album which had it on (the name escapes me....I'm thinking it was just "Aqualung" though and I've gotta say I was quite dissapointed :/ apart from "Good Time's Gonna Come"

 

Love the video for "Strange and Beautiful" though

 

Nic :o

[annabella]

I really like Aqualung. I wanted to see them at this little place, but it was 21 and older. :cry:

[berrywoman]

I really like the single thats out right now... (strange and beautifu) is that the one?? anyhoo.. yeah, I'm diggin it.

 

 

 

edit: Brighter than Sunshine.... yeah.. thats it! :P

[nightsurfer]

I saw him (or is it them? :huh:) in Minneapolis last night. Matt was good. He and Ben look nothing alike...

[berrywoman]

who's Ben?

[girlygirl]

I love aqualung!! I am in love with falling out of love. great song i like brighter than sunshine too its so beautiful.

[nightsurfer]

who's Ben?

 

His brother

[berrywoman]

ahhh he sings too??? ^ :huh: :embarrased:

[nightsurfer]

backing vocals, as much as I know.

[nightsurfer]

Aqualung on Letterman Dec 14 05

 

I missed last night's Letterman and didn't get to watch Aqualung perform... :( I was wondering if anyone knows where I could get my hands on a torrent to download from or anything of the sort.

 

Thanks.

[*andrea*]

bump :uhoh:

[mysongislove1915]

Love 'em. I was just listening to "Easier To Lie". =)

[crazyduckette]

Strange and Beautiful is the only one I know from them.....but its one of my favourite songs....so lovely. :nice:

I must check out some of their other stuff

[nightsurfer]

Call me weird, but I like both the released albums so far...

 

I've really high expectations for the new album

[StarsKay]

years ago i caught strange and beautiful on the tv and i thought it was amazing. the film clip, the lyrics, the melody...very nice. it's not often i actually acknowledge video clips of artists i don't know, or given them a change long enough to play the entire song, with aqualung i wanted to see it again. it's the only song i know of them though but very nice.

[Kyuu]

Aqualung.. hmm.. know most of the songs.. but I'm not really into Aqualung anymore.

[busybeeburns]

Aqualung reaches new musical depths

 

Thirteen seconds into the first track of Aqualung’s new album Memory Man, you instantly realize this is not the same Aqualung that brought listeners Strange & Beautiful in 2004.

 

“Cinderella” starts Memory Man off with a less-than-revolutionary soft and simple piano part. However, at that critical 13-second point, a brash, high treble, electric guitar riff destroys the comfortable pop vibe the piano had established. Aqualung has evolved, and the harsh guitar of “Cinderella” makes this perfectly clear from the outset.

 

In 2004, Aqualung became a surprise success with the release of Strange & Beautiful and its hit song “Brighter than Sunshine.” The minimal yet well-crafted songs of the album earned Aqualung spots on several larger tours. The prolonged touring gave lead-everything frontman Matt Hales, who for all purposes is Aqualung, a challenge in keeping his songs fresh for the audience each night. According to Hales, the constant effort to reinvent his songs and keep his mind sharp gave rise to the myriad of new sounds on Memory Man.

 

The artful restraint that Hales and his songwriting team (brother Ben Hales and wife Kim Oliver) used in the construction of the musically minimal yet artistically diverse Strange & Beautiful is both present and absent in Memory Man. Despite the whirlwind of actions and sounds that permeate the new album, there is still a controlled structure to each song. Though there may be moogbass, glockenspiel, harmonium or sirens sounding off, not one seems out of place or over the top.

 

Riding the success of the “intelligent Brit-pop” (e.g. Coldplay and Radiohead), Aqualung seems to be cutting out a niche for itself among these elites. Hales creates his mystic sounds by using his voice in much the same way Radiohead utilizes the versatile guitar creations of Johnny Greenwood. Hales’ airy pipes can go seamlessly from whisper to smooth falsetto and back again, giving his songs a foggy clarity, like someone walking to you through a fine mist. This is particularly true on songs like “Vapour Trail” and “The Lake.” Yet, to Hales’ credit, it never becomes weak, redundant or annoying a là early John Mayer stylings. Even though he may sound somewhat similar to Coldplay frontman Chris Martin, Hales exercises a vocal restraint and control that equals, if not surpasses, Martin.

 

The minimal, emotion-packed tracks of Strange & Beautiful have evolved into a more layered, complex and more poetic structure on Memory Man. Songs such as the first single “Pressure Suit,” which carries a beat evoking a breathing machine, is structured around a tight poetic progression of musical give-and-take. The song, in both instrumentation and lyrics, peaks and hollows out at all the right moments. When Hales wails, “I’ll be your respirator/ I’ll be your pressure suit/ It’s all right,” the songs lifts itself to match the imploring lyrics. Likewise, when we reach the desolate lines, “Two spinning spheres, they spin together/ I’m going to spin alone /I don’t know how I can do this,” the song is reduced to a thin piano backing and the lonely, pleading vocals.

 

In past songs, Hales and company have kept things fairly straightforward, while on Memory Man, a real strength comes in the ability to expand both upward and downward with lyrics, to understate and exaggerate certain meanings and emotions. In the song “Something to Believe In,” Hales’ lyrics hit a little harder than those of Poison’s Brett Michaels in his hit of the same name: “Turn out the light and what are you left with / open my hands and find out they’re empty.”

 

Though Hales’ hands may be empty, the album is far from it. It ranges from infectious highs to desolate lows in a more creative, complex and, in the end, more compelling way than Strange & Beautiful (and Brett Michaels). Memory Man exhibits what a great group of musicians do to follow a highly successful album.

 

Grade: 4 out of 5

 

http://badgerherald.com/artsetc/2007/03/13/aqualung_reaches_new.php

[Kyuu]

Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees! I got Memory Man! :dance:

Loved it.

[kellyml3]

aqualung - Memory Man

 

Check out this new record from Aqualung http://www.aqualung.net

<a href=http://www.sonymusic.com/clips/selection/fu/700741/700741_01_02_full_smil.mov><img src=http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j50/Joe_College/MemoryMan-listen-468x60.gif>

[busybeeburns]

Better than Coldplay? Aqualung is

 

Matt Hales, aka Aqualung, probably is sick to death of the Coldplay comparisons.

 

But it's alright, because his lyrical and musical talent shoot straight past Chris Martin on their way up into the stratosphere.

 

Aqualung used the Fine Line in Minneapolis Wednesday night to blast off into space, with Hales and his backup band (including brother Ben) powering through achingly gorgeous semi-ballads and full-out musical spasms unparalleled this side of Radiohead.

 

The band has a more polished, and, yes, Coldplay-esque sound this time around, but Hales still sprinkled in moments of quiet genius and ethereal bliss from the new album "Memory Man" and the earlier "Strange and Beautiful."

 

Playing the same Minneapolis venue they did two years ago, Aqualung have improved both in stage presence (those witty Brits) and in musical muscle. Looking like a mad scientist as he stood in front of the crowd, plucking his keyboards and tweaking effects, Hales seemed far more comfortable with his lead position than last time around.

 

Opener Sara Bareilles wowed the already nearly full house with her flawless vocals (Norah Jones ain't got nothin' on this girl). Her full-length album, "Little Voice," is due out this summer.

 

http://www.plamerican.com/node/1881

[Black Rose]

I must admit, I only have heard "Strange And Beautiful [i'll Put A Spell On You]" by Aqualung.