A Mum with Good Music Taste?

People often complain about their parents' taste in music. Often children are subjected to songs throughout their childhood that they learn to despise, and never quite share the appreciation with their parents. Often it works both ways, with parents mocking the listening tastes of their offspring.

Despite this, I must openly admit that my Mum has introduced me to no less than two great albums recently. A while ago she insisted that I had to listen to Grace by Jeff Buckley. I'd never even heard of it before, but I found it soon after in a sale and now really enjoy listening to it. Since then I've become much more aware of the wide appreciation of the album.

The other day I unexpectedly received a parcel from my Mum containing a few photos from Christmas, and a cd-shaped wrapped present. Inside was still life, the new album from aqualung. I'd really liked strange and beautiful from the debut album and featured in a VW advert, and the video for good times gonna come which I saw on MTV was cool.

This wasn't the first time I'd heard Matt Hales sing. On Monday 24th May 1999 I saw a band called Ruth playing live at ussu while I was studying at Surrey University. From their set I remember Waiting For This the most, so much in fact that I spent several years looking for a copy of their album Harrison. Thanks to eBay I finally tracked down a seller and in January of 2002, almost 3 years after hearing them live, I managed to get hold of my very own CD, and it was worth the wait: I loved it. It really is a pity that it never seemed to get the recognition it deserved.

Well, I guess that's just the way things go, but the point of that little detour is that aqualung is Matt Hales, aforementioned ex-lead singer for Ruth (oh, and The 45s too, but that's another story...) I've listened to the new album through a few times now and really like it. OK, the album artwork is a bit pretentious, and the songs can verge on dreary sometimes (you could say the same about Coldplay or Radiohead I guess) but that's just the kind of music it is. See what you make of track one, brighter than sunshine. Try it, you might like it.