|
|
 |
For an artist who catapulted to popularity by having a song in a television advertisement for Volkswagon, Matt Hales (the primary creative force behind Aqualung) has a surprisingly rich and artistic sensibility, qualities that aren't usually ... Full Descriptionassociated with mainstream commercial music. Aqualung's previous releases revealed Hales's penchant for lovely, catchy songcraft, and MEMORY MAN, the artist's fifth release, certainly has those qualities as well--but there's something more here.
The album is richly detailed from start to finish, revealing layers of soundscapes over multiple listens. The complex arrangements help create a strong, heady atmosphere, one that is both mysterious and enticing. But none of this is at the expense of the tunes, which are among Hales's best, and range from compelling rock to quieter, singer-songwriter moments. In its synthesis of accessibility and complexity, MEMORY MAN amounts to a fine pop album.
Composer: Matt Hales.
Aqualung: Matt Hales.
Additional personnel: Kerry Frampton, Robin Green, Alistair 'Titch' Walker, Jim Copperthwaite, Dave Price, Paul Buchanan, Oren Marshall, Sarah Field, Ben Hales, Kim Oliver.Spin (p.88) - 3 stars out of 5 -- "[H]is way with a tune has taken him further than many of his B-list Brit-pop peers."
Entertainment Weekly (p.68) - "Hales works admirably hard at selling his world: a place where girls are cast as fairytale heroines, boys are full of feelings, and pianos can totally rock out." -- Grade: B
Uncut (p.81) - 3 stars out of 5 -- "Hales' dramatic chord changes show a keen awareness for stadium filling dynamics..."
Alternative Press (p.182) - 3 stars out of 5 -- "[T]his time around, Aqualung's sweetness is surprisingly easy to swallow." Hide DescriptionPurchase Memory Man CD To buy, Click on price to add to cart | Lcd Soundsystem Sound Of Silver CD (2007)
Memory Man album
 $10.19  
As wryly noted on LCD Soundsystem's debut 2002 single, "Losing My Edge," in the underground music arms race, aging hipsters are losing ground against young upstarts who are (perhaps) unaware of their own influences. And if influences are the stuff with which post-millennial musicians are made, Murphy has trumped us all. Touching on reference points ranging from disco, krautrock, Bowie, house, and post-punk, to singer-songwriter types, SOUND OF SILVER is a veritable catalog of left-field cool. Leading off with the slow-boil, hypnotic opener, "Get Innocuous"--which sounds a bit like a reprise of "Losing My Edge" crossed with Kraftwerk's "The Robots"--the album moves from dance-floor stormers to plaintive piano numbers without batting an eye. On "North American Scum," Murphy lampoons the often mistaken idea that LCD Soundsystem is a U.K. act; his nasal vocal echoing Jonathan Richman as he declares "for those of you who think we're from England--we're not." As humorously self-effacing as he is, SOUND OF SILVER also shows Murphy's growth as a songwriter. On the album's closer "New York, I Love You But You're Bringing Me Down," he laments the passing of the old New York, "To the cops who are bored once they've run out of crime/New York you're perfect don't change a thing." It's a fitting tribute that holds up against the countless other great songs written about the Big Apple.
James Murphy is well-known as half of the New ...
| | Modest Mouse We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank CD (2007)
Memory Man CD music
$15.35 
Though the album title sounds like it was borrowed from the avant-weirdos Liars, WE WERE DEAD BEFORE THE SHIP EVEN SANK finds quintessential indie-rockers Modest Mouse charting a course down the stylistic middle. They retain enough of their trademark quirkiness to keep longtime fans from feeling alienated, but they simultaneously put popwise songcraft to the fore. The dance-rock of "Dashboard" sounds like it could be a Killers outtake, and several tracks find the band engaging in the kind of post-Pavement mid-fi style that first endeared them to the slacker masses.
Isaac Brock sounds ...
| | Historical Conquests Of Josh Ritter CD (2007) Japan
Memory Man music CDs
$10.25
Less well-known but arguably more talented than his contemporary Ryan Adams, and perhaps forever doomed to be confused with Josh Rouse, an equally fine but far more low-key indie singer-songwriter, Josh Ritter should nonetheless count himself lucky: in the 1970s, he would have been called a New Dylan, a moniker that inhibited the career of every singer-songwriter it was applied to. Like his guitar-totting forebears, Ritter does bear the mark of Dylan in his wordy mix of highbrow literary and historical allusions with sly pop culture riffs, but musically, Ritter has more in common with contemporaries ...
| | M I A Kala CD (2007)
Memory Man songs
$9.49 
Even before M.I.A. (Maya Arulpragasam) debuted in 2005 with ARULAR, the blogosphere was already abuzz about her, engaging in the kind of discourse normally reserved for academic dissertations. Whether hailed as a canny postmodern pastiche or dismissed as inauthentic cultural pirating, the music, a lively pan-global mash-up of regional dance music styles, seemed to be emanating simultaneously from every ghetto, favela, and council-flat within earshot. As if to call out her detractors, M.I.A. returns for another shot of explosive, politically charged and globally conscious dance music on her second album, KALA.
Lacking the patchwork quality of the debut, KALA is a more cohesive and polished affair, though it matches its predecessor for shear visceral thrills. Recorded across several different continents, and featuring the production talents of Timbaland, Switch, and Blaqstarr, as well as longstanding collaborator Diplo, the globetrotting beat makers mine sources as varied as funk carioca, Baltimore bounce, and the occasional ludicrously placed sound-effect (a squawking chicken). The gloriously bombastic lead single, "Boyz," kicks off the party with ...
| | Bruce Springsteen Magic CD (2007)
Memory Man album
$14.99
Following up two folk-flavored albums, MAGIC finds Bruce Springsteen laying down his acoustic guitar to reclaim his rock-hero crown. He's assisted in this endeavor by producer Brendan O'Brien, best-known for big-time '90s hard rock, but the results have little in common with O'Brien's grungy past. Instead, MAGIC's sonic blueprint is more in line with Bruce's last stadium-rock statement, 2002's THE RISING. The album is front-loaded with hard-charging, heavy-riffing tunes ("Radio Nowhere," "You'll Be Comin' Down") that benefit from the sure-fire attack of the E Street Band. In fact, "Livin' in the Future" harks back to the band's vintage '70s work.
MAGIC isn't all back-to-basics rockers, though; evocative ballads that employ atmospheric string arrangements indicate that Springsteen is content neither with standing still nor with looking backwards. One of the most rewarding aspects of the album is the fact that after the relative tunelessness of 2005's DEVILS & DUST, Bruce seemingly learned from the folk gems he covered on his Pete Seeger homage a year later, and started writing arresting melodies again. Any way you look at it, those who may have been put off ...
| | Radiohead In Rainbows CD
Memory Man CD music
$11.65 
Initially issued in October 2007 with little prior notice, Radiohead's seventh full-length studio outing, IN RAINBOWS, took not only fans but the entire music industry by surprise. Released for a limited time only as an online download, the album was offered by the revered British rock group in a groundbreaking "pay what you want" format, allowing the listener to decide its digital value before an appearance in conventional CD form a few months later.
Innovative business practices aside, IN RAINBOWS also garnered attention as Radiohead's most immediately engaging offering since its BENDS/OK COMPUTER days, returning to slightly more accessible pop/rock song structures, while never abandoning the arty experimentalism ...
| | Jethro Tull Original Masters CD (1985)
Memory Man music CDs
$12.79
Anyone who owned a radio in the 1970s knows most of these songs by heart. A comprehensive retrospective of the career of Jethro Tull, this collection gathers the group's big hits and fan favorites, while also including early chestnuts that may not be familiar to listeners who weren't there the first time around. Showcasing an eight-year period during which the group rose to international prominence, ORIGINAL MASTERS includes at least one song from nearly every year of Tull's steady rise, from 1969's "Living in the Past" to the title track of 1977's SONGS FROM THE WOOD.
This is an ideal set for people who want to skim the cream off the top of the Tull songbook. All the essential songs are here--"Aqualung," "Locomotive Breath," "Bungle in the Jungle" "Skating Away," etc., but some of the other choices provide valuable historical perspective. Early songs such as the impassioned "Witch's Promise" from 1970's BENEFIT show off the unique sound Tull possessed before 1971's AQUALUNG transformed them into a monster rock band.
In the mid '80s, prog-rock made a comeback of sorts, with '70s superstars Yes and Genesis scoring hit albums and singles. While Jethro Tull didn't build on its '70s success in next decade as well as the aforementioned bands, Tull still retained a sizable following. In 1985, the band's third "best of" collection was issued, ORIGINAL MASTERS, which combined the best selections from its two greatest hits predecessors, 1976's M.U.: THE BEST OF JETHRO TULL and 1977's REPEAT: THE BEST OF JETHRO TULL, VOL. II.
Jethro Tull's earlier work is undoubtedly the band's best known, and it's represented on ORIGINAL ...
| | Bizarre Ride II The Pharcyde CD (1992)
Memory Man songs
$14.45
When the Pharcyde burst onto the scene in the summer of '92 with its brilliantly disconnected grab bag BIZARRE RIDE II THE PHARCYDE, it seemed at first an innocuously enjoyable, goofy if somewhat lightweight disc. However, it would swiftly become clear that there were deeper waters stirring within the Pharcyde's rhymes and rhythms, and that the group's style was unlike that of those who came before.
The main distinction came in the Pharcyde's subject matters, which run the gamut from the usual sexual conquests all the way to rejection and masturbation. ...
| | Paddy Keenan Long Grazing Acre CD (2003)
Memory Man album
$15.89
| | Steve Kuhn Temptation CD (2007) (Import) Japan
Memory Man CD music
$32.85
| | Zox Wait CD (2005) Digipak
Memory Man music CDs
$10.15
| | Chill From The Heart CD (2003)
Memory Man songs
$16.39
| | Chip Richter My Dad's Coat CD (2001)
Memory Man album
$15.19
| | Journey Trial By Fire CD (2006)
Memory Man CD music
$15.15 
| | Various Artists Through The Prism: The Classical Tribute To Rush CD (2007)
Memory Man music CDs
$13.89
| | Silly Sing-A-Long Songs CD (2007) (Import)
Memory Man songs
$11.79
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
57840 
to listen to Music Samples 
