10 Futures

2015 release from the British singer/songwriter, the long-awaited follow-up to MAGNETIC NORTH (2010). Matt Hales - AKA Aqualung - has made this year's most surprising album. Less a departure from Aqualung's past as a forward-looking fresh start, the aptly-titled 10 FUTURES is the sound of an artist gleefully abandoning boundaries, confounding expectations and, most importantly, having fun. 10 FUTURES is precisely what it advertises on the tin 10 innovative songs that pursue an adventurous path with no precedent. Seven of the 10 songs feature guest vocalists; two of those that don't were co-written. As diverse as the list of guests which range from Lianne La Havas and Luke Sital-Singh to Glaswegian electro trio Prides and art-rock band Sweet Billy Pilgrim are the styles of music they dip in and out of. From the R&B-meets-TV theme tune madness of first single 'Tape 2 Tape', sung by Joel Compass, and the distortion and strings-accompanied piano ballad 'Seventeens' to the frisky, Paul Simon-meets-Prince pop of 'Shame On Me', featuring Australian singer Josef Salvat, and the choral-influenced ambient beauty of 'Everything'. 10 FUTURES really is the sound of Aqualung revived, reinvigorated and fearlessly reinvented.