Aloha follows the acclaimed LP Some Echoes (2006) and acoustic EP Light Works (2007) with a powerful record that shows the band unbound by past influences and boldly stepping out of the shadows.

Home Acres pushes the tempos and dials up the guitars, with the band’s slow-burn intensity sometimes overflowing into huge moments. But even as the energy surges, Aloha casts an otherworldly glow, serving up ambience and attack with equal measure. Lyrically, Home Acres tries to sort through the wreckage of the Great Lakes region and a way of life.

Left abandoned “waiting for a getaway car that never came” in the record’s arena-rock-by-way-of-Silver Apples closer “Ruins,” we’re left to think that maybe we ought to have dreamt bigger and fought the urge to disengage. A suggestion that Aloha has taken to heart for its biggest, brightest record to date.