The Aces were a band I had known of for a while, but I hadn’t ever sat down
and given them a proper listen. When I heard they’d released their debut
album I thought this was a better time than ever to do so.
Their debut album, ‘When My Heart Felt Volcanic’, starts with ‘Volcanic Love’,
immediately you are introduced to the bright indie pop sound given to the
song by the chorus enriched guitars. The song gives a very warm summer time
feeling which along with the catchy chorus entices you and gives a great first
impression, a fantastic song to start with. Following ‘Volcanic Love’ is their
album version of ‘Stuck’ which tells the story of a failing relationship/being
unhappy in a relationship, which seems to be a very common topic lyrically
throughout the album. Though this can easily be forgiven by how catchy and
well written the chorus’ are for pretty much every song.
The album consists of 13 songs, the songs all have a similar sound with slight
changes for each song. Sometimes songs being too similar can let a band/artist
down, just as much as all the songs being completely different can. The Aces
found a very good way to keep it interesting to listen to as well as keeping a
certain sound, a sound that shows they know what’s needed in the recipe for a
great indie pop song.
As the album progresses, the bands musical and tight knit talent becomes obvious by how they experiment with marriaging the interesting and unique melodies within the vocals, and how they use samples and different synth sounds to keep the songs unique but different from eachother. The vocals play one of the biggest roles in an indie
pop song, following a same melody line can sometimes become too
predictable which if done for every song may not give a band the full
recognition they deserve. The Aces have absolutely no problem with this,
which is shown in songs such as ‘Fake Nice’ and ‘Hurricane’.
The band show their interest and knowledge of music technology with songs
such as ‘Lovin’ Is Bible’ and ‘Holiday’, these songs feature sound manipulation
and some interesting synth use. These aspects almost push them towards the
pop sound that you’d expect from the big mainstream chart artists, but I think
despite being close to it, they manage to veer away with the ‘indie’ guitar tone
and the real drum sound.
Overall, I think that ‘When My Heart Felt Volcanic’ is a fantastic album and a
great reflection of the creativity and talent that all the band members acquire.
Normally I’m not particularly keen on Indie Pop but I can make a very big
exception for The Aces because of how catchy the songs are, I hope to see
them live sometime soon.
Written by Brad Holleran
Northern Radar 