Aqualung - Album Listening party and track notes

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1. Strange and Beautiful (I'll put a spell on you) - Matt Hales/Kim Oliver

I write songs all the time. It's like eating and shitting for me - if I don't do it everyday I start to feel odd. So when I got that call in April from the ad agency asking if I had any songs knocking around, well I did.
As soon as I saw the film for the VW ad, I thought of strange and beautiful. I remember sitting in my hallway playing it in the piano and peering into the lounge to see how it seemed to go with the film. It seemed to go rather well. I guess you know the rest.
And the song? Well it's either a sad unrequited love song, or a sinister stalker song - take it how you like. The music was inspired by Debussy and the tune came out of nowhere. I like the crap drum loop.
Over the weekend whilst we waited to find out if we'd got the ad, we listened to the demo a lot. It started to seem like a nice way to go - all lo-fi but also very arranged - so we decided to do some more.

2. Falling out of Love - Matt Hales/Kim Oliver

So you're in a relationship but you know in your heart it's over…. The music was made from minor chords in a long meandering chain, with Aretha Franklin on my mind.

3. Good Times Gonna Come - Matt Hales

I wrote this about a year ago, reflecting on a shitty time in my life and wishing I could have known it was going to work out ok in the end.
It was originally a strange piano waltz, but mutated into a strange guitar waltz. I was particularly pleased with the sound of the riff at the beginning which was made by blu-tacking paper clips to the piano hammers.

4. If I Fall - Matt Hales/Kim Oliver

Perhaps my favourite at the moment because it sort of sums up how I'm feeling. Excited and terrified all at once. I got Ben to play two tiny guitar bits with two notes each, then made the guitar parts out of them in the computer. It was hard and hurt my brain, but I like the effect

5. Just for a Moment - Matt Hales

The more you have, the more you have to lose.

6. Tongue-Tied - Matt Hales/Kim Oliver

When Ben started doing the acoustic guitar arpeggios, the recording suddenly went all Innervisions, which was fine by me. I toyed with changing the key, but in the end I liked the effect of my very high singing with the low voice underneath.

7. Can't Get You Out Of My Mind - Matt Hales/Ben Hales

Ben and I wrote this a couple of years ago with the band in mind, but we never really got to grips with it. Evidence of our love for Bread (the band from the 70s, not the foodstuff) and later period Beach Boys. Lovely classic words by Ben. Falling in love is frightening.

8. Everything Changed - Matt Hales

This is the oldest song on the album by far. I wrote it 5 years ago, all inspired because my friend was having a baby and it was amazing. She's five now, and wants to play the glockenspiel on it when we play it live. It's her song, but I hope you enjoy it too.

9. Gentle - Matt Hales/Matt Vincent-Brown

Matt and I are old, old friends. He taught me my first piano things when we were toddlers and we've made music together all our lives. Originally the arrangement was Beatle-y, but I changed my mind and went for Spector-y wall of sound instead - it just seemed to suit the gospel flavour of the lyric.

10. Nowhere - Matt Hales

This came out in a rush, words and music together.
If you listen carefully you can hear a car drive by in the background - home recording rules!

11. Halfway to the Bottom - Matt Hales/Ben Hales

As soon as I finished this recording I knew it had to be the last track.
It's a submarine song, bobbing in the dark blue and finally, slowly drifting away.