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
