

Sugar (CD)
On their second full-length, Cleveland's Aloha rechart their course with looping guitars and vibraphones over dynamic rhythm tracks. From the mind-clearing percussion romp that begins the album, to the persuasive anthemic swing of its closer, we find a band that is willing to turn any musical corner for the sake of its songs. This is a sophomore record that WILL NOT DISAPPOINT. Aloha surpasses every expectation and, in every song, proves why reviews like this were commonplace for their first album: "Take post-rock a la TORTOISE and TRANS AM, inject it with the unique, Midwest melody stylings of BRAID and THE PROMISE RING, add RUSH and KING CRIMSON's prog tendencies, COLTRANE's jazzy quirks, and a member whose full-time job is to create the most beautiful sounds out of vibraphones, triangles, and congas. Amazing." --Lollipop
| Tracklisting | |
| Disk | 1 | |
| 1 | Fractures, Pt. 1 |
| 2 | They See Rocks |
| 3 | Let Your Head Hang Low |
| 4 | Balling Phase |
| 5 | It Won't Be Long |
| 6 | Protest Song |
| 7 | Thieves All Around Us |
| 8 | Dissolving |
| 9 | I Wish No Chains Upon You |
| 10 | We Get Down |
| andy round
- Rock Island, IL, |
| I still listen to this album quite a bit... 'Let Your Head Hang Low', 'I Wish No Chains Upon You', and 'We Get Down' are great songs. One of my favorite things that Aloha does on this album is have all of the other instruments drop out and just have the guitar strumming naked by itself. 'Let Your Head Hang Low' makes great use of this technique, and then the rest of the instrumentation comes furiously and suddenly back into the mix. The quality of this band's musicianship is undeniable. | |