Pre-order of Apollo 6. You get 3 tracks now (streaming via the free Bandcamp app and also available as a high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more), plus the complete album the moment it’s released.
All orders also include a high-quality digital booklet [PDF] and high-quality jpgs for each single cover. ** Expected shipping date for vinyl is early Fall 2023.
**TO PURCHASE THE DIGITAL-ONLY DELUXE EDITION: add the Digital Album option to your cart and please enter an amount equal to or greater than $20.**
**DELUXE EDITION FULFILLMENT: bonus album We Relay Light will be fulfilled digitally. You will be sent a separate one-time email with download instructions on the release date (5/19/2023).**
Not available anywhere else: Apollo 6 as it was meant to be heard! All ten tracks on one 12" LP. Each copy was hand-pressed by Musicol Recording in the USA, and mastered for vinyl by Peerless Mastering in Boston, MA — PLUS a bonus digital album featuring extra songs and demos from the Apollo 6 sessions, exclusive to this pre-order.
VINYL EXPECTED TO SHIP: Early Fall 2023
Includes digital pre-order of Apollo 6.
You get 3 tracks now
(streaming via the free Bandcamp app
and also available as a high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more), plus the
complete album the moment it’s released.
digital album releases May 19, 2023
item ships out on or around October 1, 2023
edition of 100
$40USDor more
You own this
Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
Apollo 6 as it was meant to be heard! All ten tracks on one 12" LP. Each copy was hand-pressed by Musicol Recording in the USA, and mastered for vinyl by Peerless Mastering in Boston, MA. *** EXPECTED TO SHIP: Early Fall 2023
Includes digital pre-order of Apollo 6.
You get 3 tracks now
(streaming via the free Bandcamp app
and also available as a high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more), plus the
complete album the moment it’s released.
digital album releases May 19, 2023
item ships out on or around October 1, 2023
edition of 100
$25USDor more
You own this
Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album
Not available anywhere else: the full album on CD in a mini-LP sleeve, PLUS a bonus digital album featuring extra songs and demos from the Apollo 6 sessions — exclusive to this pre-order.
Includes digital pre-order of Apollo 6.
You get 3 tracks now
(streaming via the free Bandcamp app
and also available as a high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more), plus the
complete album the moment it’s released.
shipping out on or around May 19, 2023
$25USDor more
You own this
Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album
The full 10-track album on CD in a mini-LP sleeve.
Includes digital pre-order of Apollo 6.
You get 3 tracks now
(streaming via the free Bandcamp app
and also available as a high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more), plus the
complete album the moment it’s released.
shipping out on or around May 19, 2023
$10USDor more
You own this
T-Shirt/Shirt
Commemorate the release of Apollo 6 with a t-shirt designed by Matt Jatkola. Available in S-3XL. Available only during the pre-order period, which means orders close on 5/19/2023. Expected to ship mid-June.
I don’t care about the money
It’s all just paper to me
I don’t need the finer things in life
I just want company
I need a serious way to spread some joy
but all you do is bring me down
What do you want me to say?
“It makes no difference to me”?
What do you want me to say?
We’ve all got somewhere to be
How can I join a march
if I won’t get off my feet?
I don’t want a cross to bear,
but I’ve a truth to speak:
You’ve got a curious way to show your love
when all you do is hurt me
What do you want me to say?
Things cannot be this way
What do you want me to say?
We’ve all got somewhere to be
Ain’t waiting on no semaphore
Can’t mesmerize me no more
Don’t tell me when to go and stop
You gonna choke on all that shit you talk
Standing still, my mouth keeps running
Now my gun seems to keep shooting
Feet don’t run off now don’t fail me
Ain’t no one here gonna bail me out
I get up at night in sweat and doom
cos the dread inside can posses you
Well the cement in my soul it stays
and it weighs me down
my phantom anchor
Standing still, my mouth keeps running
Now my gun it seems to keep shooting off!
Feet don’t run off now don’t fail me
Damn my soul, don’t come bail me out
You’re a two-bit man in a two-bit world
Cheap champagne running down your nose
Oh yes you are
When the books get writ
and you seal your fate
no one here will know your name
You’re gonna believe in the comeback kid
You’re gonna believe I'm the comeback kid
You’re gonna believe I'm the comeback kid
Come back!
Miles and miles of country where I go
Miles and miles of country filled with snow
High flying bird in sky
Wave as you pass her by
Miles and miles of country where I go
Sky is big and blue and so am I
Sky is big and blue and so am I
Space between it and me
Feels deep and heavenly
Sky is big and blue and so am I
Close your eyes you can picture it
A memory you have not made
Anytime you may run to it
You can stay all day
Leave the past on a shelf
The future it can wait
Step inside any time you like
We can stay all day
Miles and miles of country where I go
Miles and miles of country filled with snow
Miles and miles of country where I go
Treat your mind like a holy place
That ray of sunshine in the shade
When the clouds come a-rolling in, say
“We could use the rain”
Leave the past on a shelf
The future it can wait
Step inside any time you like
We can stay all day
I imagine what would be
If we were standing by the sea
And I resolve my will to find
The peace within I must reside
4.
Morning Moon
5.
The Origin of the Hourglass is Unclear
6.
Big Blue
7.
Ride On!
8.
Apollo
9.
Stranger in the Alps
10.
Stoned Ape
about
Aloud launches itself skyward with Apollo 6, a psychedelic album laced with sweeping, spacey textures and distinctly personal songwriting. “We kept asking ourselves, ‘What would a rock band on a different planet sound like?'” says Jen de la Osa, who shares lead vocals and songwriting duties with Henry Beguiristain. “That question led to a lot of sonic experimentation, and we came up with a cosmic, echoing record where you can hear the room itself. You don’t just hear the song. You hear the space.”
For Aloud, breaking new ground wasn’t just a creative decision; it was a necessity. After putting the finishing touches on 2020’s Sprezzatura — an ornate album inspired by the Muscle Shoals sound, featuring horns and strings — the musicians found themselves at home, unable to perform together due to the global pandemic and nationwide lockdown. They’d always been a collaborative outfit, arranging songs together in a rehearsal space before tracking them in a recording studio, and they’d just released the most lushly layered album of their career. Now, they’d have to do something different to maintain momentum.
“As writers, we’re always looking at the experiences we’ve had and trying to use that as inspiration for songs,” says Beguiristain. “Being locked up meant we had to turn inward instead, because that’s all we had. I think we just naturally went to a personal place, and the guitar became our way of dealing with things. Songs became our therapy.”
Recorded in several home studios across Los Angeles, Apollo 6 came to life as Aloud reflected upon the chaos, challenges, and resilient spirit of the modern moment. Beguiristain and de la Osa wrote songs about the benefits of meditation, the detriments of social media, and the coping mechanisms humans turn to during dark times. They experimented with guitar pedals — a Space Echo here, an organ emulator there — to coax new textures out of familiar instruments. They peppered their songs with sound effects, bird noises, and snippets of dialogue. Without help from an outside producer, the two reached out to bandmates Charles Murphy (bass) and Chris Jago (drums), both of whom utilized their home studios for recording sessions. Everyone produced. Everyone shaped the arrangements, including saxophonist Alanah Ntzouras Maguire. As Aloud readied Apollo 6 for blastoff, the musicians also made sure to balance the layered swirl of their instrumentation with the most personal songs of their career.
“The album became the most self-expressive batch of songs we’ve ever written,” de la Osa reflects. “Almost every single one of them was written about something we went through during that pandemic time.”
“The Comeback Kid,” with its space-cowboy stomp and western sound effects, became a musical mission statement: a battlecry from a band that formed in Boston, moved to Los Angeles, and weathered a host of challenges — from lineup changes to business deals gone south — over the course of five acclaimed albums. “Somewhere To Be” became a guitar-driven march worthy of Oasis, kickstarting the album with bold declarations like “I don’t care about the money; it’s all just paper to me.” De la Osa wrote about her search for stability with “Meditation for the Housebound,” a psychedelic rocker punctuated by blasts of brass, and Beguiristain measured the distance between real life and the echo chamber of the internet with the jangling “Big Blue”.
For all its fiery futurism, Apollo 6 also nods to the musical roots that first brought de la Osa and Beguiristain together. The two met as teenagers in Miami, where they grew up within the same working-class Cuban community. Bands like Oasis, Beatles, and The Who became their mutual favorites, soundtracking the pair’s relationship with a mix of guitar grandeur and pop melody. Apollo 6 is rooted in the same musical balance, but it also embraces an updated range of influences. The ambience of musique concrète, the witty angst of The Kinks’ Lola Versus Powerman and the Moneygoround Part One, the psychedelia of Noel Gallagher’s Who Built the Moon?, and the unforced cool of French pop all inspire Apollo 6‘s unique sound, and Aloud doesn’t recreate those influences as much as assimilate them into something sharply unique.
Apollo 6 is the sound of silver linings — a booming, boldly assured album created a time of uncertainty.
credits
releases May 19, 2023
Apollo 6
by Aloud
Produced by Aloud
Mixed by Benny Grotto at Mad Oak Studios, Allston, MA
Mastered by Jeff Lipton and Maria Rice, Peerless Mastering, Boston, MA)
All songs written by Jen de la Osa & Henry Beguiristain
Henry Beguiristain: vocals, guitars, keys, percussion
Jen de la Osa: vocals, guitars, keys, percussion
Charles Murphy: bass, backing vocals, percussion, keys
Chris Jago: drums, percussion, backing vocals
Alanah Ntzouras Maguire: saxophones, flute, percussion, backing vocals
Vanessa Acosta: trumpet, percussion
Additional musicians —
Vicious Jago: speech (“Stoned Ape”)
The Vicious Tabernacle Choir of Los Angeles: additional backing vocals
Stevie Ray "El Bongo" Hernandez: percussion ("Somewhere To Be")
Recorded at South Endustries in Los Angeles, CA and Shabby Road Studios in Woodland Hills, CA
Additional recording at Beachwood Manor
Engineered by Charles H. Murphy IV and Chris Jago
Sleeve Layout: Henry Beguiristain
Apollo 17 mission control audio courtesy of NASA.
This record would not have been possible without the love and kindness of our family and friends when we needed it. Thank you for always lifting us up and supporting the Work.
Aloud is, in the parlance of our times, a rock n’ roll band. Since our founding in Boston in the early 2000s we’ve released
5 albums, toured coast-to-coast several times, and even landed music in a few films. We’ve called L.A. home since 2017.
Aloud is currently putting a neat little bow on Apollo 6—their follow-up album to Sprezzatura which, if you believe what the papers tell you, is very good....more