Now that record labels have become obsolete, it’s rare that we associate any current label with a wealth of great music. However, in the world of independent rock music, we’ve been able to count on Polyvinyl Records since 1995 for a steady stream of all types of sounds across the indie rock spectrum.<\/p>\n
Although Of Montreal might be the only band who has experienced much mainstream attention from the Polyvinyl camp, there’s no denying that Rainer Maria and Braid also became heavy hitters in the underground. With over 200 releases now, for every Of Montreal, Polyvinyl is home to bands like Aloha, who \u2013 despite having released half a dozen fantastic albums \u2013 aren’t exactly on most people’s indie rock radar.<\/p>\n
\u201cSignal Drift\u201d starts off this quintessentially summer disc with bright melodies and shimmering synth, combining to create song that is equals parts dance pop and indie rock. \u201cFaraway Eyes\u201d follows with a darker, almost post-punk inspired approach, with plenty of fuzz and electronic effects. \u201cOcean Street\u201d then shifts gears and is a more subdued affair, allowing vocalist Tony Cavallario to illustrate his underrated pipes; the instrumentation here is both dizzying and spellbinding.<\/p>\n
Near the middle is where my favorite track resides: the cryptic, dark \u201cMoon Man\u201d which takes on properties not unlike all our favorite Radiohead songs before erupting into a tense and unforgettable indie rock gem with a charming chorus. One of the best songs of the year, this alone is worth the price of admission.<\/p>\n
The second half of the album finds the band embracing their experimental ideas with the atmospheric \u201cFlight Risk,\u201d the euphoric synth of \u201cOne Hundred Million,\u201d and the hazy \u201cSwinging For The Fences.\u201d The album ends with a culmination of all of Aloha’s strengths on the muscular indie rock of \u201cI Heard You Laughing,\u201d where creative instrumentation invades the synth melodies and strong wordplay of Mr. Cavallario.<\/p>\n
Most fans will cite 2010’s superb Home Acres<\/i> as Aloha’s finest work to date, myself included. Though the band has traded in guitar driven rock for sleek synth-pop on this disc, with the powerful drumming of Cale Parks and unique contributions from all the players here, it is quite apparent that Aloha are masters of whatever variation of indie rock they take on.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":89,"featured_media":32807,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[9859],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-44579","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-aloha","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/44579","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/89"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44579"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/44579\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=44579"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=44579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}