Aloha - That's Your Fire
(Polyvinyl)
Possibly the most important thing to remember when listening to Aloha's new
album is that their name means both "Hello" and "Goodbye." The absurd
profoundness of this double meaning has an enormous impact on the psyche
of the band and, thusly, defines their sound. That is to say, Aloha sucked,
but now they are kind of good.
Aloha's debut EP, The Great Communicators, The Interpreters, The Nonbelievers,
really sucked. I think you can pretty much determine that from the EP's
title. With a title like that, is there anything Aloha could possibly be
other than an emo-like band that attempts to rival Joan of Arc in college-boy
pretension? Listening to their debut EP, that is exactly what they were.
For a band to be billed as "with vibes," they showed pretty much a general
ineptitude for actually using the vibes in the songs. The vibes, in the few
seconds they were used, were generally there to contrast the other instruments.
The only decent part of the EP was the largely keyboard-based music at the end
of the disc that still sounded a bit too much like a poorly written term paper
in Post-Emo 101: Joan of Arc's First Two Records. Hearing that the first
time from Joan of Arc was fun, but hearing a poor imitation is not. And that,
without any use of vibes at all, was the best part of the EP!
Well, just like their name, Aloha is ready to totally nullify initial
impressions, and, in general, kick your ass. For their first full length,
That's Your Fire, the band turns in 10 largely rock-based songs that actually
(insert gasping sound) use the vibes a lot and use them well. Instead of
contrasting the guitar and other instruments, the vibes actually go along
for the ride this time, complimenting the other instruments and adding
richness to the sound. The band lays a thick bed of guitar and drums,
letting the sprinkles of chiming vibes pierce through. In the first EP,
they would have cut out some of these instruments, creating a vacuum to leave
space for the vibes, but here the vibes push out the sound, creating something
a lot... well, a lot cooler.
And did I mention this is a rock record? Hell yeah! There ain't no panty
waste noodly pseudo-intellectual wannabe bullshit. After Aloha got their
Pass/Fail grade in Post-Emo 101, they totally threw away their textbook and
went back to purer musical forms, and they are that much better for it.
The singing is still very emo, but it doesn't dominate the sound like a lot
of emo music, the vocals buried just under the surface of most songs instead
of prominent and forefront. Also, the guitars are stronger and bolder, and
the drums show a lot less of a jazz influence.
That's Your Fire is a pretty good album. As a big fan of the sound of vibes,
I get that much more out of it, and the quality of these songs totally makes
up for my sour first impressions from their first EP. "Aloha" is starting
to sound a lot more like "Hello."
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