Pictured: Aqualung, the saddest little eskimo.
In Pressure Suit, Matt Hales does his best Thom Yorke and Coldplay impressions. There is soaring guitar, there are chanted vocals, in the video he gets his hair all windblown. It is all pretty artsy. Especially for a guy who has made his career on extremely safe, squeaky clean pop.
Now, I’m not saying that this album, or this song in particular is any sort of giant leap forward. It’s just that he now seems trapped in limbo, too indie for the college girls, and too lame for the indie guys, sort of like if Ben Folds decided to do a Brian Eno cover album. That being said, usually when Hales hits, he hits well and true.
Pressure Suit is the first radio hit off of the new album, and it’s definitely all that his other singles haven’t been. Loud, rhythmic, and at times dissonant. Also, if anyone can tell me what that guy is saying on the first line of the song, there could be a ten spot in it for you. The first minute is Hale doing radiohead, but after that he takes full advantage of giant recording spaces and computers that make him sound huge. Pressure Suit ends with the kind of soaring optimism that so many pop artists try for, but few end up actually capturing. Hales does so with ease. This track goes up, up, up.
Also, I read an interview where this guy bashed Jethro Tull AND The police. That takes some stones for a guy who sort of looks like a lesbian 8th grade English Teacher.
Edit: Actual “indie” music reviews may be done at some point in time by Ian.
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