Aqualung - Aqualung

Track list:

1. Strange and Beautiful (I'll Put a Spell on You)
2. Falling Out of Love  
3. Good Times Gonna Come
4. If I Fall 
5. Just For a Moment 
6. Tongue-tied  
7. Can't Get You out of my Mind  
8. Everything Changed  
9. Gentle  
10. Nowhere  
11. Halfway to the Bottom 

Running time: 46 minutes
Released 2002

I suspect this album may get short shrift, and mostly get dumped. I was, like thousands of others, charmed by Strange and Beautiful when it appeared on TV ads for a Volkswagen Beetle. I obviously liked it enough to buy not only this album, but also Still Life which followed. My instinct tells me that I have almost certainly drifted away from interest in this in the intervening years, and that both are likely to be gutted down to stand-outs or removed altogether after their listens. I might be wrong though. Lets see... 

The album opens with its iconic track - a classic case of shooting its bolt too soon? - and what a track it is. A bit slow and slightly one-note in delivery, but the simple piano melody is gold dust. I am honestly surprised to still like it this much. The song is quite stalkerish in an uncomfortable way, but the tune is gorgeous and (can I say this after a decade?) timeless.

Hales' voice is not inspiring, which drives a bit of a wedge between me and the music. Falling Out of Love is in a similar vein, sharing a general tone and similar musicality with his smash hit. However the tune is nothing like as charming, and it exposes the indifference of the rest of the composition and performance. The whole thing just gives off too much of a downbeat vibe - a sort of depressing inevitability; I desperately hope that there are some more cheery tracks in here because otherwise I might be past help for the evening after 46 minutes of constant downer. I am frantically looking down the track list trying to recall hints of the music that accompanies these names and, uniformly, failing to do so. I will have to steel myself, and instead look for the magical patches in a quilt made of interminable sameness.

See, I have to believe that the writing team that came up with Strange and Beautiful must be able to recreate a similarly good tune here or there - even for a single bridge - and it is piano driven which gives me a predisposition to like it if the dullness can be pierced. So far though, the star turn stands alone; the 3 tracks since have been like wandering through a building where every surface is painted beige and there is no other sensory stimulus at all - and the... I can only assume heavy breathing at the end of If I Fall is hideous.

It precedes the next best this album has offered so far. Just for a Moment has a nice whimsical turn on the keys; pity it is hidden behind a vocal smear that is pretty unpleasant and lyrically dull, repetitive. When it ends we get a few seconds of a richer sound - still distant, but a hint that Tongue-tied might have a sturdier arrangement, if a quiet one. This song I could see myself liking in another context and with another singer. Strong vocal performances are not Aqualung's forte, but there was enough behind it to suggest that he can compose. I am, on hearing them, finding some familiarity and recognition of the tunes. Or is that because I have heard 7 different takes on the same theme now, some executed much better than others?

That is a touch unfair, there have been a few tracks now where the melodies have stood out, and they were all similar, sure, but different enough to provide a sense of change. What does not it is the vocal - stylistically and tonally dragging itself through each song in the same pitch and dragging everything down as a result. Its like this: a sad piano tune can be appreciated, have a beauty that reflects that sadness but does not pass it on; an empty vocal like this singing a sad song or straining over that tune destroys that appreciation almost wholly. His voice is grating so much by this stage that my gut says I should not keep those tunes where I liked the composition because they are too stained. Actually its worse than that, the disc has not even finished playing and I am not sure I can identify them! Too much similarity.

All snideness aside, I think I might hang on to a few. When not listening to a whole album of it, his voice would not offend so much, and I was genuinely enjoying the meandering of fingers on keys at points in the middle of the disc. Three tunes is plenty: Strange and Beautiful (obviously), Tongue-tied and Just for a Moment will do it, I think. The rest will likely never be heard again.