DEAD LETTERS

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citation needed] It was released in March 2007, and the liner notes credit Hales with playing the following instruments: piano, Fender Rhodes, glockenspiel, electric guitar, Stairwell Drums, harmonium, Moog bass and vocoder. 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. Collaborating with all kinds of artists - including Lianne La Havas, Bat For Lashes, Mika, Tom Chaplin, Jason Mraz, For King and Country and countless others – Hales’ hectic yet immensely rewarding schedule resulted in huge acclaim, including both an Ivor Novello and a Grammy. In 2010, Hales moved to Los Angeles, to begin the production of his sixth studio album titled Magnetic North.

Throughout the mid and late 2000s, Aqualung's music was used in television shows such as Grey's Anatomy, The O. In addition to this, Hales co-wrote "Everything Is Sound" on Jason Mraz's Grammy nominated album Love Is a Four Letter Word, [46] and worked with Paloma Faith on the single " Just Be" from her album Fall to Grace.

Brighter Than Sunshine" enjoyed Top 40 airplay success in the United States, [26] leading Aqualung to a worldwide recording contract with Columbia Records in 2005, and the US release of Strange and Beautiful, [27] a compilation of tracks from his first two UK albums. The debut self-titled Aqualung album reached Gold status in recognition of over 100,000 domestic sales, while the brighter symphonic scope of his second album, ‘Still Life’, led to another chart hit with ‘Brighter Than Sunshine’. 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).

While on the road, Hales would routinely switch up the Aqualung show with different musicians, settings, and approaches. These are not the proverbial “trucker’s gear change” so loved by some of those old Billboard number ones, but rather the elegant, effortless and yes, uplifting key changes only an accomplished musician can pull off. That was Matt’s rather tongue-in-cheek cue to launch into Champion of the World, alas, not a streaming hit.

The chorus features the lyric “You got it / Your feet are just a bit too big for your shoes” and “you’re a soldier now”. Recorded at Hive Mind Studios in Brooklyn, NY, with the help of producer/arrangers Mike Buckley and Vincent Chiarito (both members of Charles Bradley's Extraordinaires) and crack team of a-list musicians, his upcoming album blends heavy arrangements and introspective lyrics with sophistication, leaving the listener in a blissful wash of wonderment. 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.

No wonder, then, that aside from occasionally briefly resurfacing, Aqualung remained in hibernation. 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. When an artist’s new work is so transparently ranked against their biggest hits, it must send a disconcerting message.While this might have a touch more humility than the usual brazen fib “this is my best work ever”, they needn’t be. As those songs evolved into a catalogue of material, Hales reunited with some of the team behind the second Aqualung album, ‘Still Life’, for sessions at Real World near Bath, where that album was recorded. That piano adorns the inside cover sleeve of the album and proved to be the central tool in this record’s creation, with Hales composing sketch after sketch that eventually shaped themselves into the album's nine fabulous songs.

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. I love articles like this, and I will be forwarding this one to Matt Hales so he can have a gentle laugh or a shrug of the shoulders.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. Disorientated by the odd feeling of being unmoored despite back home, Hales gravitated to channelling those emotions – and a whole lot more – into writing songs at his favourite old piano.