DEAD LETTERS

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Collaborating with all kinds of artists - including Lianne La Havas, Bat For Lashes, Mika, Tom Chaplin, Jason Mraz, For King & Country and countless others – Hales’ hectic yet immensely rewarding schedule resulted in huge acclaim, including both an Ivor Novello and a Grammy. No wonder, then, that aside from occasionally briefly resurfacing, Aqualung remained in hibernation. A quirky little thing here, is that the cover of Dead Letters will tell you side one isn’t done. But it is.

Ganz, Caryn (10 March 2010). "Sara Bareilles Turns Panic into Rebirth on Uptempo Summer Disc". Wenner Media LLC . Retrieved 21 February 2013. THE 7th album FROM AQUALUNG, Dead Letters, is a homecoming record that thumbs its nose up to streaming conventions. it works beautifully. Heatseekers Albums: 3 September 2005". Prometheus Global Media. 3 September 2005 . Retrieved 21 February 2013. GOOD TIMES GONNA COME: "2002 12 08 Official Scottish Singles Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. officialcharts.com/. BRIGHTER THAN SUNSHINE: "2003 10 09 Official Scottish Singles Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. officialcharts.com/.As early as 2004, Hales began collaborating with other artists as a songwriter and producer. He co-wrote " UR" by Tiësto which featured his lead vocal, and was released as a single and featured on the album Just Be. [37] He worked with Leona Lewis on her album Echo in 2009, [ citation needed] and in 2010 he co-wrote songs appearing on albums by Brooke Fraser, [38] Christophe Willem, and Boyzone. [39] One of the great things about streaming is that the system tells you what the best songs are that you’ve ever written. It ranks them, so you can also see all the songs you’ve written that aren’t very good as well. Accordingly this next song is…absolutely worthless!”. Hodgkinson, Will (23 April 2003). "Wired for sound". Guardian Media Group . Retrieved 21 February 2013. Brownlee, Bill (2 April 2008). "Review: Hotel Cafe Tour". The Kansas City Star . Retrieved 21 February 2013. Mervis, Scott (5 May 2005). "Music Preview: Matt Hales, aka Aqualung, explains confusion with Jethro Tull album". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette . Retrieved 21 February 2013.

Champion Of The World’ has massive Elton John ‘Benny And The Jets’ vibe, but also sounding reminiscent to the songs that first broke Hales two decades ago. There is a soaring string section that grows and falls, as does Hales’ vocals. 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”. It feels like Hales is either talking about fame – his rise to prominence and drop off – or he could be talking about his children. And this is the beauty of ‘Dead Letters’. You are never sure if his being confessional or talking about someone else entirely. 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. While that song created a magnetic allure, the strength and versatility of Hales’ songwriting further enamoured audiences. 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’. By the time Aqualung’s third album, Memory Man emerged, glowing comparisons had been made with everyone from Bacharach to Radiohead via The Beach Boys, while his music has featured in ‘Twilight’, ‘Gossip Girl’ and ‘Grey’s Anatomy’. Dead Letters side one ends with the first ‘single’, the gentle and melodic ‘ Imperfect Cadence’, which comes with a rather radio friendly chorus that proves beyond doubt Hale’s hit-making credentials are in fact well intact. It comes complete with a piano flourish at the end that is a nod to Hales’ classical training. The song is yet another parallel universe radio smash. That was Matt’s rather tongue-in-cheek cue to launch into Champion of the World, alas, not a streaming hit. But most definitely not worthless either, the song is as close to a hit single as he’ll write these days (and a surefire hit in a parallel universe of good taste). It even has a Doobie Brother’s bounce!Silverstein, Rebecca (21 February 2007). "Getting To Know Matt Hales From Aqualung". The Fader . Retrieved 21 February 2013. Fool’ starts off as a sombre piano ballad. As the song progresses strings and guitars gently explode from the speakers. These tiny maelstroms match the lyrical content of the song. “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. Streaming has been doing some strange things to music, you may have noticed. None of this has been lost on Matt Hales. After all, not only does he make and release music as Aqualung, but he also writes and produces music for some very successful streaming artists, so he knows the score you might say. Yet on Aqualung’s latest album Dead Letters, he’s not bothered one bit about conforming to streaming conventions. Pearson, Beth (20 November 2002). "Music Aqualung, St Andrews in the Square, Glasgow". Newsquest. Archived from the original on 12 May 2014 . Retrieved 21 February 2013.

STRANGE AND BEAUTIFUL: "2002 09 22 Official Scottish Singles Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. officialcharts.com/. Aqualung - Aqualung HQ: We're delighted to let you be the... - Facebook". Facebook. Archived from the original on 26 February 2022. Eliezer, Christie (16 November 2011). "Amy Meredith: new international management deal, split from Sony". The Music Network . Retrieved 22 February 2013. Murphy, Lauren (5 March 2010). "Music Review-Boyzone-Brother". The Irish Times . Retrieved 22 February 2013.

Jenkins, Mark (6 May 2005). "Aqualung 'Strange and Beautiful' Red Ink/Columbia". The Washington Post Company . Retrieved 21 February 2013. A dead letter is one that is undeliverable and unreturned by the post office. A message that sits in purgatory. A dead letter drop is a place where messages and other material can be left and collected in secret, without the sender and the recipient meeting. All of which feels like the perfect metaphor for the songs that Hales had written. Matthew Nicholas Hales (born 17 January 1972) [1] is an English singer, songwriter, musician and record producer who has been performing professionally under the name Aqualung since the early 2000s. [2] Aqualung is best known in the UK for his song " Strange and Beautiful", which was featured on a television advertisement for the new Volkswagen Beetle during the summer of 2002 [3] and went on to become a top 10 hit on the UK Singles Chart later that year. [4] 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. Hales has released seven albums as Aqualung. The most recent, Dead Letters, appeared in 2022. Maynard, Trent (17 December 2012). "news: Lianne La Havas' year in review". Box Television. Archived from the original on 5 February 2013 . Retrieved 22 February 2013. EASIER TO LIE: "2004 03 21 Official Scottish Singles Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. officialcharts.com/.