ALOHA - Light Works

By Simon Howell - A Listening Ear - 12/04/2007

Some bands seem to have everything stacked against them. Aloha suffer from a boring name, generic song and album titling, less than magnificent lyrics, and an uninspiring vocalist. They are not particularly adventurous or distinctive in their pristine indie-rock sound, for the most part. Against the odds, however, they managed to quietly accomplish some impressive work; their last release, Some Echoes, featured a number of memorable songs with unconventional arrangements, relying heavily on xylophones, percussion and keyboards while minimizing the use of guitars. Light Works sees them substituting most of the keyboards for actual piano, and penning a set of songs so nondescript as to vacate your mind as soon as they leave your ears -- an example of living down to expectation?

Opener "Body Buzz" is probably the most memorable track, thanks to an agreeable chord progression, but there's a nagging sense that the track could have just as easily been recorded by any one of the deluge of Coldplay acolytes we've been subjected to over the past few years (The Fray, Keane, Snow Patrol, etc.). From there, things don't improve, as the number of lyrical inanities and redundancies increases. On "Broken Light," Tony Cavallario insists that "time is on my side" and that "today is like any other day," which makes you wonder why he bothered to write about it in the first place. The track slogs along for over five minutes without inspiration or revelation. "Trick Spring" shows promise, with its sprightly acoustic guitars tucked in either speaker and a return to the synth-driven sound of their previous output, but the song fails to capitalize on its potential energy, preferring to squat in place and squander a melodically interesting chorus with some inane chatter about weather machines. "The End" finally injects a bit of energy, adds some subtle horns, and manages to keep things under three minutes -- there's a bit of that potential at work, finally. "I know you can make an effort," they intone.

The effort stops, or at least it disappears from view. "Passengers" puts us firmly back in Keane-land, with its annoying chorus -- "too much of anything is wrong" -- which manages to be both prescriptive and distinctly unhelpful. At least "Gold World" brings in some of the unique percussion they're known for, but it's again paired with a blandly conceived ballad. Even the apparently improvised closer "Equinox" comes across as completely lacking in spontaneity, perhaps the greatest indicator of the group's aggressive sense of immobility. The drums try valiantly to play with emphasis, the synth lines meander a bit, the song meanders on over six minutes, but none of these elements manage to take the track anywhere. The most hopeful thing one can proffer up about this release: it's essentially a stopgap release as opposed to a "proper" new LP; let's hope it's not a harbinger of things to come for the talented but seemingly stifled group.

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