That's Your Fire

Album Review

Aloha emphatically trumps their pair of mostly exquisite Polyvinyl EPs with an even more exciting debut full-length album that further blurs the distinction between prog rock, jazz, pop, and post-rock while extending the legacies of all of them. That's Your Fire is a wildly adventurous recording, full of vibrant experimentation and improvisatory chance taking that is consistently pulled off. Although the band delves into innumerable musical genres, there is no mistaking their identity, thanks in large part to the sensational musicianship of the four band members. Aloha's deep and dreamy basslines, complex drumming, and mystically sparkling rhythm guitar would have been enough to set them apart from similar-minded peers. But the ubiquitous presence of vibes, as well as Tony Cavallario's melodically flexible vocals, renders the music mantra-inducing, which in no way implies that the quartet is all otherworldliness and no edge. They jump from the ethereal (the delusory oases of "Liberty" and "Heading East") to the spasmodic (the angular, punk space-age bachelor pad Devo of "Last Night I Dreamt You Slept Beside Me") with ease, ricocheting from the hulking pop anthem "Ferocious Love" to the jazz-funk fusion of "A Hundred Stories" to free jazz. None of the songs follow verse-chorus-verse structure, and yet the album is a perfect example of daring songwriting that still retains an insatiable catchiness and sonic cohesion. Aloha have scaled back their excessive tendencies. The melodies are stronger and more fully fleshed out. The only quibble that can be leveled at the album is that its songs bleed into one another to the point that it takes numerous listens to separate them from one another. It is impossible to pin an Aloha song down because it veers off down so many paths, not just stylistically but melodically and texturally as well. Because of the band's virtuosic instrumental skills, the songs never spin out of control, and yet the intensity of the listening experience is so relentless that you can't help but wish they had allowed for a few moments to pause between songs. As it is, That's Your Fire is a gorgeous, impressionistic sound painting. It frequently surprises a listener with its almost story-like breadth, ebbing and flowing but always moving the narrative toward a conclusion. It may occasionally verge on aimlessness, but it is an ambitious work on both a conceptual and musical level. Once the band figures out how to harness the complex soundscapes they formulate, they are capable of brilliant albums. In the meantime, Aloha has made a glorious noise that is endlessly intriguing and very often inspired.