Monday 9 June 2008

Aqualung

Aqualung   
Artist: Aqualung

   Genre(s): 
ROck: Alternative
   Electronic
   Dance
   Indie
   



Discography:


Memory Man   
 Memory Man

   Year: 2007   
Tracks: 11


Strange and Beautiful   
 Strange and Beautiful

   Year: 2006   
Tracks: 12


Still Life   
 Still Life

   Year: 2003   
Tracks: 10


Aqualung   
 Aqualung

   Year: 2002   
Tracks: 11




London-based Matt Hales, aka Aqualung, started getting tangled in music at a pres Young age patch hearing to different tracks played at his parents' Southampton phonograph recording stock. He began writing songs at age four on his family's pianoforte. At the age of 16, after achieving a scholarship, the enthusiastic thomas Young isle of Man began attending composition classes. A twelvemonth later a philharmonic called Life Cycle became his debut in the definitive area, performed by a 60-piece orchestra. His blood brother Ben united him in a band to overlay the Police's classical songs. In the early '90s, following studies at London's City University, he became part of the Britpop banding Ruth, releasing President Benjamin Harrison on ARC Records in 1999. After leading the 45's (non the Atlanta-based garage tilt revival band) and issuance deuce singles on Universal, Hales grew disenchanted and started working on Aqualung in 2002, frequently co-writing songs with his married woman Kim Oliver and blood brother Ben Hales. The alternative tilt project (ab initio scarcely a lo-fi sleeping room venture) became quickly popularized by a VW Beetle TV ad in the U.K. featuring his vocal "Strange and Beautiful (I'll Put a Spell on You)," which coincided with the release of his self-titled debut in 2002. Several singles followed into the succeeding class, as well as his second album, the fuller-sounding Still Life. The record spawned some other stumble single in "Brighter Than Sunshine," and shortly, various Aqualung tracks were popping up in popular television shows and movies on both sides of the Atlantic. Hales so combined tracks from his earlier U.K. albums into one 12-song set for Aqualung's proper American debut, which finally surfaced in early 2005 via Columbia Records entitled Brighter Than Sunshine. Extensive touring end-to-end North America followed over the succeeding deuce years, driving the album to identification number one on Billboard's Heatseekers chart and sledding on to trade over 250,000 copies. On the route, since Hales was fundamentally just now playing songs he'd written years earlier to a new audience, he would routinely electric switch up the Aqualung show with different musicians, settings, and approaches to maintain things as fresh as possible. The diverse elements he explored during this fourth dimension (including the echo device called the Memoryman) later drove chisel the creative process behind what would later turn Aqualung's next record album, March 2007's more than ambitious Memory Man.






Wednesday 4 June 2008

The Kooks, Konk

Herald rating: * * * * Label: VirginVerdict: An excellent second effort that nearly lives up to the band's bold claims.Before releasing this album, frontman Luke Pritchard told NME magazine he wanted the band's sophomore effort to be big. "I've got an ego ... I want our singles to come on the radio and for people to literally have their heads blown off by them."Credit where credit's due, the first single Always Where I Need to Be became an instant radio hit, with its rollicking, upbeat rhythm and singalong chorus. Mr Maker is set to be a chart-topper with its swinging harmonies, hand-clapping and perfect hooks. It is the quintessential pop song. The type of song, one imagines, the Beatles could have written.The slow-building See The Sun is a mellow but enticing opener, encouraging listeners to savour the upcoming album. It also showcases the superb talents of guitarist Hugh Harris.The acoustic guitar and haunting vocals of One Last Time reveal the boys have the talent to slow things down and still appeal, while Stormy Weather and Do You Wanna showcase a gruntiness not heard on their debut.


But while the singles are excellent, some bits in between are forgettable and the closer All Over Town should have been cut completely.