ALOMO come from the leafy Upton-upon-Severn, a name which screams of private schools, coffee mornings at the village hall and other such upper class-isms. It’s probably none of the above (I’ve never been so I wouldn’t know), but I can’t think of any bands that have already come out of the town/village/hamlet (delete as appropriate). ALOMO play a brand of piano-led pop-punk that pays homage to Something Corporate. To be honest it would be very difficult to compare the band to anyone else, seeing as though the piano and vocals are highest in the mix. Scratch the surface and these songs sound pretty good – there are the makings of some natty hooks and solid choruses, while the piano playing is of a very high standard.
So, why the positive remarks and just a 2.5 out of 5 score? Well, the recording of this CD really lets it down. The sleeve notes for this CD suggest the whole thing was recorded at their school within 2 hours – and it shows. Strangely, the piano and lead vocal doesn’t sound too bad; it’s high in the mix where it should be, and the piano especially is reasonably clear. It’s just everything else that suffers. The attempts at vocal harmonies are cringeworthy, often mis-timed and nearly always out of tune, while the guitar tone is really bad too. The bass is also far too quiet in the mix. Now I know that’s what you get when you record four songs in two hours, but it really detracts from what potentially could be a nice little band. It means this EP serves as a taster, but it’s not something they could plausibly release or send to too many people for their views. My advice would be to book studio time and get these songs down properly.
Are they the UK’s answer to Something Corporate? Possibly – there seems to be a lot of talent here and the audible song structures sound promising, but the end result loses a full star because of the poor recording. I’d be interested to hear decent recorded versions of these songs though, as ALOMO look as though they may be on the right tracks.
www.purevolume.com/alomo
Paul