Magnetic North - Aqualung

Magnetic North

Aqualung
Verve Records.

SCQ Rating: 73%

Matt Hales, the Brit behind the curtain of Aqualung, has been an unpredictable surprise for SCQ in recent years; his 2007 game-changer Memory Man found his syrupy rep taking on a sinister understanding of electronic-rock, not to mention making a gift for my girlfriend suddenly a gift for myself. Hales is also a bit of a paradox for this particular writer, my praise launched at dark-horse sophomores countered by a wrath (in the form of this open letter) spewed toward his subsequent backpeddling. The accused, 2008’s Words & Music, felt less like a half-hearted collection of cutesy, white picket-fence singalongs and more like bittersweet justification on my behalf that Aqualung’s deserving spot on this website (Memory Man landed respectively on SCQ’s Top Twenty of 2007, even) was born of fluke.

Magnetic North proves otherwise, clarifying Words & Music’s sub-album classification in its very press-release and citing this as the official follow-up to Memory Man. Now that’s more like it! And Hales makes good on his crafty rewriting of history with a collection of tight melodic songwriting that, like that 2007 surprise, marries the sincere with the cloying, the studio polish with the piano balladry. ‘New Friend’ earns its title thanks to a small army of Hales friends’ singing over its refrain, even if it’s hopelessly hackneyed, while surefire single ‘Fingertip’ over-romanticizes every cliché. Yet the majority of it works, given you check your cynicism at the door, and gains credibility next to Aqualung’s more somber offerings. The combination of Hales’ Bono-with-range vocals and delicate piano immediately raises hairs on the succinct ‘California’, the relationship-on-edge-of-collapse meditation ‘Remember Us’, and – perhaps one of this year’s finest songs - ‘Sundowning’. Although it lacks the spirited experimentation that shaded Memory Man with urgent undertones, Magnetic North showcases Aqualung’s softer takes on love and longing; ultimately Hales’ safer side.

Words & Music - Aqualung

Words & Music

Aqualung
Verve Records.

SCQ Rating: 45%

Dear Matt Hales,

What the hell? Do you realize how hard it was for me to convince people that Memory Man was actually good after you sweet-talked our mothers in with that 'Brighter Than Sunshine' tune off the schmaltzy Strange and Beautiful? One day you’re top forty’s new bashful boy, the next you’re a one-man symphony of bittersweet electronic-pop, turning out songs like ‘Pressure Suit’ and ‘Garden of Love’ as if your soul would implode if you didn’t. A year and a half later, I discover that your follow-up is ready for release; it’s called Words & Music, which is an immediate worry, and it’s released on jazz-label Verve. Still, I gave you the benefit of the doubt.

Listening to Words & Music, I’m hopelessly reminded of Paul McCartney… not the work he did with the Beatles but the drivel he churned out with Wings and in much of his solo career. You know the sound well… that of a moderately talented band-member taking ill-advised inspiration from his lazy, stay-home-while-the-wife-works, domesticated life, where songs deal with post-wedding memories, hackneyed piano arrangements, and predictable lyrics (“falling at your feet”, “on my knees, saying please”, “holding my heart” and “nananananana”… all poisonous one-liners on their own, are actually from the same chorus of ‘On My Knees’). In fact, I can imagine you working any tension or creativity out of these songs in some well-lit living room, sunshine streaming through the bay-window onto your baby-grand. Who knows, you could’ve written Memory Man under the same conditions but things were different then. You were reaching for something or someone in those songs, something or someone that I think you’ve found now cause this happy collection of sap is familiar. I’ve heard the same sap from other songwriters who ran out of superficial conflict and felt they could get by on Paul Simon covers or honkytonk piano melodies.

There are a few reminders of your talent present: ‘Nothing Else Matters’ retains some great hooks and ghostly studio echoes, while ‘Arrivals’ ends the disc as a frustratingly great celtic-based, orchestrated piece. Both these tracks incorporate your good ear for arranging symphonic pop and while they still suffer from a significant sap-factor, they prevent me from kicking myself too much for anticipating this album. After the depth of emotion found on Memory Man, Words & Music is truly little more than what’s promised in the title.

Know that had you never made Memory Man, I wouldn't have bothered with this album in the least. Turns out we were both at fault.

Better luck next time,

SCQ.

Memory Man - Aqualung

Memory Man

Aqualung
BMG Records.

SCQ Rating: 82%

A year ago, Matt Hales (AKA Aqualung) meant nothing to me. He was like a Jack Johnson without the schtick, Justin Timberlake without the sex; another starry-eyed, effeminate songwriter who couldn’t earn a male fanbase. I saw him on televisions in Target, squinting his sensitivity through the camera, oozing ‘tortured artist’. His first album had sold platinum; my girlfriend loved him. I didn’t.

And that’s why I bought the album – for her. It sat in my luggage for a week before I returned from Halifax and nearly forgot to give it to her. And as if his second record re-wrote itself inside my suitcase, I found myself pausing mid-sentence while we were catching up from my two weeks out East to say “Wow, did you hear that?” Suddenly Matt Hales is a one-man rock band, measuring his sincerity with melody and a pulse you can believe in. His newly-acquired alt-rock skills are glossed appropriately by his electronic production, giving a modern sheen to the crunch of ‘Cinderella’ and ‘Outside’. Its accessibility is comparable to Coldplay’s by way of melody and lyrical content, but Memory Man keeps things original enough to remain free of adult contemporary radio. In fact, when Matt Hales rings off a chorus that would normally be too poppy for your liking, it’s a brief reminder that you’re listening to an artist who, two years ago, had nothing more than poppy choruses to offer.

Lush and darkly seductive, Memory Man is a beautiful, fully realized journey… and ready for this? Nobody gave it the time of day.