Aqualung Comes to America

Following a mesmerizing appearance at this year's SxSW Festival, Aqualung, the musical brainchild of British prodigy Matt Hales, will perform a series of North American concerts beginning with a performance at Amoeba Records in Los Angeles on April 22 and winding up at the Drake Hotel in Toronto on May 13 (see full itinerary following).

News of the Aqualung tour comes hot on the heels the release of "Strange And Beautiful," the eagerly-awaited first Stateside album from the UK musical phenomenon, and the mounting success of "Brighter Than Sunshine," the first single from A Lot Like Love (Music From The Motion Picture), the soundtrack from the Touchstone Pictures and Beacon Pictures romantic comedy starring Ashton Kutcher and Amanda Peet, opening nationwide on April 22.

Rolling Stone, in a four-star review of Strange And Beautiful in its March 10th issue, wrote: "Uniting Radiohead-ish British rock and symphonic pop in the masterly mold of Burt Bacharach, the Beatles and the Beach Boys, tenor Hales delivers keenly focused keyboard-based drama that blows away all pretenders trailing in Coldplay's wake. 'Garden State' soundtrack fans, take note."

Entertainment Weekly rated the album an "A-," praising its " ... gorgeous, lo-fi Coldplay swoons by British balladeer Matt Hales, highlighted by the must-hear title track."

According to People magazine's three-star review, "Aqualung breathes a strange beauty into these atmospheric, keyboard-driven tracks with his choirboy tenor and sumptuous arrangements that at times achieve an almost classic grandeur."

With tracks remastered for its inaugural release in America, and song selection curated by Hales, "Strange And Beautiful" provides a perfect introduction to the music of Aqualung, an impeccably cohesive collection culled from Aqualung's critically-acclaimed best-selling UK albums, Aqualung (2002) and Still Life (2003). American audiences may already be familiar with Aqualung's music through its appearances in such hit TV programs as "Smallville," "Nip/Tuck," and "The OC."

"Strange And Beautiful" includes Aqualung's breakthrough single, "Strange And Beautiful (I'll Put A Spell On You)," the mesmerizing track which first introduced Hales' music to the public in 2002 via an enormously successful Volkswagen Beetle television ad campaign. Powerful and enigmatic, the single version of "Strange And Beautiful," from Aqualung's self-titled debut album, hit the UK singles Top 10 (#7) that same year.

"Strange And Beautiful" features four other songs from Aqualung -- which hit #15 on the UK albums chart in October 2002 -- including that album's second single, "Good Times Gonna Come," and "If I Fall," the title track from Aqualung's double-disk EP.

  AQUALUNG TOUR DATES

  04/22/05   Los Angeles, CA     Amoeba Records (Sunset Boulevard)
  04/23/05   San Francisco, CA   Amoeba Records (Haight-Asbury)
  04/26/05   Indianapolis, IN    The Patio
  04/28/05   St. Louis, MO       Blueberry Hill
  04/29/05   Chicago, IL         Martyrs
  05/01/05   Kansas City, MO     Grand Emporium
  05/03/05   Madison, WI         Cafe Montmarte
  05/05/05   Detroit, MI         Magic Bag
  05/06/05   Pittsburgh, PA      Club Cafe
  05/08/05   Philadelphia, PA    World Cafe
  05/09/05   Washington, DC 9:30 Club
  05/10/05   New York, NY        Irving Plaza
  05/11/05   Boston, MA          Paradise Rock Club
  05/13/05   Toronto, ONT.       Drake Hotel

SOURCE: Columbia Records

CONTACT: Benny Tarantini, +1-212-833-5858, Benny.Tarantini@sonybmg.com,
Tour Press - Sandee Gardner, +1-310-449-2902, Sandee.Gardner@sonybmg.com, both
of Columbia Records

Web site: http://www.columbiarecords.com/
http://www.aqualungmusic.com/