Posted on: February 3, 2011 Posted by: John B. Moore Comments: 0

Having shed two members since their last release, Boston indie band Aloud is down to a duo, but don’t assume that means a sparse sound. Far from it.

Down to members Jennifer de la Osa and Henry Beguiristain, both who share vocal and guitar duties (and occasionally pick up the bass or play piano or glockenspiel), the band turns in their strongest effort yet with Exile, their third release. Put out on their own Lemon Merchant Records, the record is a brief 10 songs, but the two manage to cover a lot of ground in with those tracks.

“Darkest Days” and “Old Soldiers” are both hauntingly beautiful examples of what the band is capable of now that they’ve pared down (though to be fair they have added in strings and the occasional trumpet here and there). Lyrically, the songs tend to be pretty bleak, but that hardly detracts from the record. Entirely funded by fans through the site Kickstarter.com, Exile is the band’s most experimental album yet and a good sign of things to come.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10
Top Track: “Darkest Days”
Aloud – Exile/1 CD/10 Tracks/2010/Lemon Merchant

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