Aloha – Here Comes Everyone / 2004 Polyvinyl / 12 Tracks / http://www.musicofaloha.com/ / http://www.polyvinylrecords.com / Reviewed 31 October 2004

Splashy drum beats mesh with Tony’s Coldplay-esque vocals. Unlike Coldplay, Aloha makes for themselves a completely innovative sound, using the shuffling beat of “All The Wars” to power forward. “Here Comes Everyone” is wrought on a multitude of different levels; instead of being a straight-forward rock CD, a host of innovative instruments, from vibraphone to harpsichord, and organs litter the soundscape of the CD. The second half of the aforementioned “All The Wars’ hurtles towards its end with some proactive drumming, exemplified most beautifully through a pseudo-solo. Where the drums provided such a strong presence to open up “Here Comes Everyone”, Matthew’s bass on ‘You’ve Escaped” provide a dark, earthy backdrop to Tony’s vocals. The third-way of the different organs and synthesizers make this track stand out considerably more than if any “normal’ instruments were used. Gravitating to a more audible set of influences during ‘Summer Away”, the vocal inflections of Tony sound as lush and vibrant as Phil Collins while the rest of the band backs up this sound as a new-Genesis.

Mixing together Bright Eyes, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Styx for “Boys in the Bathtub”, the track would make perfect sense on an oldies station – Kansas-like guitars, Elton John’s vocals, and the rich synthy sound of The Who or The Doors. Slowing down the tempo for “Be Near”, Aloha keeps a coherent flow and flirts with disaster. Now, the band is much too solid to fail or even stutter during this track, and what one finds during “Be Near” is an updated form of a Jazz track. Opening up “Water Your Hands” with what sounds like a reiteration of the X Files theme, Aloha perhaps let this instrumentation run a little too long. In fact, during the exact middle of the disc, Aloha tries to accomplish something great and whiffs out.

The new ground promised at the beginning of “Here Comes Everyone” is trampled, travailed, and becomes as common as a McDonalds by the second half of the disc. The good thing with “Here Comes Everyone” is that even if the disc is not continually revolutionary, Aloha are proficient enough as musicians and arrangers that the disc provides excellent aural fodder. While they may was to breach their sphere of comfort for their next release, their wide-open sound knows few in the way of limits. Still better than 99% of the music coming out at this very moment.

Top Tracks: Thermostat, You’ve Escaped

Rating: 7.1/10