ZapTown

Aloha
Home Acres
Polyvinyl
Rating: 4.2 out of 5

Link: http://www.polyvinylrecords.com/artists/index.php?id=278

For the past 10 years, Aloha has been following me around like a stalker. That’s Your Fire sits nestled within the rest of my vinyl collection. Sugar is etched in my head as having the most amazing live photo taken in the history of rock photography. Here Comes Everyone and Some Echoes showed us a maturing band who did not want to be confined to their own stereotypes. All of this floats around my life without me being acutely aware just how important this band is. But they are just that, a great band and Home Acres will make you realize just how great.

It still feels like a few years ago when I purchased their first record, not knowing who the hell they were, but bringing it home to immediately listen intently from front to back. Aloha has a sound that is so immediately familiar but uniquely talented.

It’s hard to imagine a decade has gone by and three years since Light Works was released (although I still consider Some Echoes to be the last full album they recorded due to the brevity of Light Works, making it four years).

And Home Acres shows us that the band feels like they are just getting started. The band has spent years working on a transformation from experimental indie rock transcedentalism to constructive pop purveyors.

And with Home Acres, they never felt more comfortable in their own shoes, focusing on movement while never sacrificing momentum. Strike the album as the essential springtime listening pleasure. “We want what everyone wants, good days and sunshine,”

While the band is spending time maintaining their chops, we are spending time enjoying their open-eyed revelations on life and wide-armed sound stretched as far as we can feel. As for “Moonless March,” just when you reach a level of high with their beautiful pop overture, in comes the power and you then reach an even higher high. Speaking of beautiful “Microviolence” is as catchy as any Del-Fi release while being absolutely sincere in their version of pop music in the angular sense Aloha has maintained.

And as much as we celebrate we can feel an underlying presence of realization as songs like “White Wind” reminds us that while pop music can be a big party, there is a melancholic reality that cannot be ignored. The band longs over it, we sigh in return.

While many of the bands like this has come and gone (June of 44, Promise Ring, Ui), Aloha has survived as the spirit that lies in Home Acres justly rules.

It is a time for the band to understand and realize not only their limitations, but also their potential and what made them an incredible independent band since the beginning.

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