Until recently, Radiohead was considered unique. Not to take anything away from Thom Yorke and the boys, but its innovative musical ideas have since been imitated many times over. Sometimes well, sometimes not so hot. Coldplay added the chick flick factor to the Head’s emotional pop, while Snow Patrol bolstered Coldplay’s serenades with more literacy. Now, here comes Aqualung with Memory Man, its second release. “Pressure Suit” mashes a Yorke-ish tortured soul vocal with a secularized Delirious? devotion. “I’ll be your respirator/I’ll be your pressure suit”, singer Matt Hales promises, as if his life depended upon it. Aqualung plays epically sweeping songs; like modern day Big Music. But it also hushes the volume significantly during the pretty “Garden Of Love”. This one features The Blue Nile vocalist Paul Buchanan, who brings that act’s usual meditative feel to it. Buchanan’s singing also has the character Hales’ sometimes lacks. Bands like Coldplay and Snow Patrol make emo music for the post-graduate set; heart-on-the-sleeve stuff for public radio music listeners -- even though these tasteful consumers would simply shiver at being associated with such Panic-At-The-Fall-Out-Boy kids stuff. But it is what it is. Even so, Aqualung -- while derivative -- is a breath of fresh air. Or at the very least, one of the better Radiohead knock-offs.
~ Dan MacIntosh
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