Aloha

Home Acres (Polyvinyl)

By Dana Raidt
Published: March 23rd, 2010 | 7:00am

Aloha is a short word that means a lot, and Aloha is a band whose simple pop songs also speak volumes. Started in Bowling Green, Ohio in the late ‘90s, the band has led a nomadic 13 years of life as members relocated to just about every town in the eastern half of the country. But given the fact that none of Aloha’s members even live in the same city (the album was written via a private band blog), Home Acres is surprisingly cohesive and, well, homey.

Home Acres is an extremely palatable pop record, but it’s not because it’s upbeat or sugary sweet that it feels good to listen to it. What makes the album so easily digestible, yet still engaging, is the smallest tinge of strategically placed melancholy. This combined with interesting rhythms and song structure makes Home Acres more than just a pop record: Singalong gems like “Microviolence” and “Searchlight” are countered by the more ethereal “Ruins” and the angular “Moonless March.” It’s a feat that bands like Pinback, Q and Not U, and Minus the Bear have all mastered.

Home Acres also embodies what has always been so appealing about Aloha: It’s made up of four friends who believe in hard work and in each other. They are friends who have moved states away from each other and still want, or maybe need, to write music together. And for all the traveling that Aloha and its members has done, Home Acres indeed feels like home.

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Aloha official site

Aloha MySpace

Polyvinyl