Matt Hales, for all intents and purposes Aqualung, never travels alone. Even when he’s not with long-time collaborators, brother Ben and “co-pilot” Kim Oliver, his wife. If you ever see him in the flesh, look not at all closely and you’re bound to note a black cloud enveloping him.

Except Hales claims that “When I’m happy, I write depressing songs; and when I’m down, I don’t write.” Recorded between May and October 2006, Memory Man was co-produced by Ben Hales and Dan Swift (Snow Patrol, Art Brut). It’s the involvement, though, of Eric Valentine (Queens of the Stone Age, Lostprophets) who mixed the album, Aqualung’s third, in LA which has resulted in a punchier, rockier sound.

These 11 new songs, an occupying army of your attention span if ever there was one, will seep into your brain. Once there, they’ll prove impossible to dispel. Until Aqualung release another album, that is.

(4/5)