While that song created a magnetic allure, the strength and versatility of Hales’ songwriting further enamoured audiences. All image and audio content is used by permission of the copyright holders or their agents, and/or according to fair dealing as per the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. The ballad ‘ November’ doesn’t close side one (there is a genuine typo on my copy) but kicks off side two. It’s been a while since I told the truth”; “You think I’m a fool / I think you’re right” and “You are the hurricane that blows me away” are wonderfully telling lyrics. While this might have a touch more humility than the usual brazen fib “this is my best work ever”, they needn’t be.

Also the Aqualung records " Still Life" and " Aqualung" will be released on colored vinyl in November 2022. And this version was chosen as it had a much shorter ‘Gilmour style’ guitar solo than some of the other 104 versions Matt Hales recorded (none of which he has released on streaming platforms, but that’s another story). Dead Letters’ is the strongest album Matthew Hales has released in 20 years and feels like a fitting comeback. The band's name was changed to RUTH in 1992, [16] and although it enjoyed a minor hit in 1997 ("I Don't Know") which earned them a loyal fan base, the indie rock quartet failed to find commercial success in their seven years together. In the spring of 1990, the band (known at the time as Mecano Pig) [12] produced their debut self-titled album, but broke up soon afterwards.

That was an introduction to another Dead Letters song: ‘ Fool’, one of the album's fine, personal ballads (this one written with his brother Ben Hales). What’s odd is that after 1990, key changes are employed much less frequently, if at all, in number one hits. Anyone who has had the pleasure of seeing Jalen perform live knows that he is one of the most captivating performers on today's soul scene. Indeed, if ‘side one’ contains the big grand opener and ‘the (parallel universe) hits’ then ‘side two’ is the introspective half, full of personal stories, life sketches and dedications to family and loved ones.

A routinely great artist, much of Sufjan's universal appeal comes from his skills as a gifted narrator, pairing personal musings on love and devotion with commentary on American culture, whilst welding folk and electronica, the ambient and existential. Yet on Aqualung’s latest album Dead Letters, he’s not bothered one bit about conforming to streaming conventions.That isn’t to disrespect the albums between his self-titled debut and ‘Dead Letters’, but there is something special about his new offering. The song attracted the attention of film and television music supervisors in both Europe and North America, and was featured in the television show CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and the motion picture A Lot Like Love. It featured re-mastered studio, demo and live tracks on one CD and three promo videos on a second CD. Aqualung first came to attention in 2002 when the debut single ‘Strange and Beautiful (I’ll Put A Spell On You)’ became a surprise UK Top 10 after being discovered via a Volkswagen Beetle advert. In the United States, Aqualung is also known for the song " Brighter Than Sunshine", which had considerable airplay and was used in the film A Lot Like Love [5] and various television spots.