Album Review: Aqualung – ‘Memory Man’

‘Memory Man,’ the third album by Aqualung, stage name of English singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist/and likely-Jethro-Tull-fan Matt Hales, is a down-to-moderate tempo collection of piano-rock and pop songs that caught me totally off guard. Rather, not knowing what to expect, I was pleasantly surprised: much in the same way as when a hand grenade, instead of exploding and killing you, gives you candy! Or, you know, good music. I was expecting ‘Memory Man’ to grow tiresome, but it didn’t. Throughout the entire length of the album songs kept leaping out that refused to disappoint.

I was expecting ‘Memory Man’ to grow tiresome, but it didn’t. Throughout the entire length of the album songs kept leaping out that refused to disappoint.The album opens with a tinkling piano that breaks into a rhythmically-reserved blast of guitars, bass, and drums that can easily be seen being played during a slow-motion scene in a film that sees a protagonist running in slow motion. The song quickly begins to exceed initial expectations as interesting effects and instrumentation are added to the opening track, “Cinderella,” and then even further exceeded by the second track, the pseudo-ballad, with just a spattering of trip-hop, “Pressure Suit.” What really impressed me about this album is the inclusion of such a wide variety of instruments of differing timbre: I’ve always said that pop-music needed more glockenspiel! Now if they threw on an accordion or maybe a bass-clarinet I would be forced to proclaim this as the greatest album ever made (which is still, in my facetious opinion, The Residents’ “Duck Stab”). I was expecting ‘Memory Man’ to grow tiresome, but it didn’t. Throughout the entire length of the album songs kept leaping out that refused to disappoint, like “Vapour Trail,” “Outside,” and “Garden of Love” (even though this last one seems as though it were made to be played as that one slow song at the end of a high school dance). Aqualung’s album is definitely not something you listen to if you’re in the mood for something hard and heavy, but if you want something pretty, fairly mellow, and well constructed I highly recommend it.‘Memory Man’ is now available at Amazon. Visit the music database for more information and a complete track listing.