The Aces release sophomore album ‘Under My Influence’

It’s been two years since the Aces released their acclaimed debut album, “When My Heart Felt Volcanic.” Since then, the band – composed of four grade school friends from Provo, Utah, now grown up – has been touring the world and working on their sophomore release: “Under My Influence,” which is set to be released Friday from Red Bull Records.

“It’s so true it takes your whole life to write the first album. Especially for us because we’ve been a band since we were like 12, 13,” said Katie Henderson, lead guitar for the Aces, from her home in Utah. “I think we grew so much after touring and releasing our first album, so much more confident in ourselves as musicians and as people. The second album almost felt easier than the first, to be honest.”

That ease derives from the band’s confidence in their sound and in their fanbase. The album title, “Under My Influence,” is a blatant declaration of what the Aces were going for: “Making a record that is exactly how we want it and not being swayed by any outside opinions,” said Alisa Ramirez, the band’s drummer and sister to Cristal Ramirez, the lead singer. “Saying what we want and making the music how we wanna make it.”

The Aces’ second album preserves their sound. But – not wanting to be stuck doing the same thing – the band also deviates from it. Some reviewers called their first album sweet and substantial, among other things, but – to Ramirez’s pleasure (“I hate when anyone says our music is sweet or cute, that drives me nuts”) – this album will not draw such a description.

Certain tracks feature the familiar lighter-than-air but grounded pop tones that marked their first album, but there is a lot more variety here. For McKenna Petty (bassist for the group), words like “daring,” “bold,” “positive” and “optimistic” are all accurate descriptors, but they aren’t the whole picture. Ramirez and Petty referred to the sound as “intense,” “gritty” or “dour” in certain moments. “We explore more topics, it’s a little more mature.”

While in their first album the group steered clear of gendered pronouns, addressing songs mostly to the lyric “you,” here they confidently push against that. Cristal Ramirez said in the album’s news release, “We felt like we were being untruthful and inauthentic to the stories to not use gender pronouns and own who we – Alisa and myself – are as queer women.” Songs like “Kelly,” which follows the type of summer passion we are precluded from this year with a very summer vibe, gain a lot from that decision.

The confidence the Aces found in writing this album does not come from nowhere. Their first album tour introduced them to fans all over the globe and replaced the vague, nameless body of listeners represented by follower counts with real people.

“With the second album, we spent years touring before we made it and spent every single night on tour talking to our fans and getting to know them. And they’re so similar to us,” Petty said. “I feel like knowing who was gonna be listening to this helped us in the process and made us super excited to hear what their reactions would be and how they would like the music.”

At times this album is the epitome of perfect summer pop. At others, it’s a mix of love tracks and a lot of relationships-gone-wrong-in-one-way-or-another tracks, each with a different take on it. It’s important that this doesn’t come across as calling the album monotonous because it isn’t.

There are a lot of staple sounds that permeate the album, and you can certainly tell that this is all the Aces, but songs like “Lost Angeles” (bouncing rhythms and clever dual-meanings are abounding here) and “801” (a real poolside hit) set slightly new riffs on that, keeping the track list fresh.

The group’s more funk-inspired moments are all delightful. Rhythms from all walks of music are to be found here behind the Cristal-clear vocals, heavily driven bass and guitar and the punctual, addictive drums.

Among the band members, there are quite a few favorite tracks. “801,” “Cruel” and “Thought of You” are specifically mentioned.

When asked about influences for the album, Petty was quick to reply, “We were under our own influence, come on!” Which is a fair point, and I should have seen that coming. But no art is made in a vacuum. Alisa Ramirez hears the likes of Lana Del Rey and the 1975 in the final cut.

One of the major influences wasn’t an artist at all, but a whole music culture: punk. Cristal and Alisa’s older brother served as the basis for that as a life-long punk fan (and musician) himself.

“I feel like the essence of true punk culture is this radical acceptance of all people and all kinds of things, and I think we’ve always felt really inspired by that and that’s kind of what we wanted to emulate with this record,” Alisa Ramirez said.

For a band with such a direct tie to their fans, the pandemic hasn’t been easy.

“Our absolute favorite part of the whole thing is performing and getting to connect with our fans in person,” Ramirez said. “It’s been kind of a bummer.”

They’re working on some kind of livestreamed performance, but even that is difficult with half the band in Utah and the other half in L.A.

“We definitely won’t take it for granted when we get back,” Henderson said. “All of a sudden, it’s not this thing you can always have. It’s crazy.”

And when things do open up, fans hope they’ll stop by Spokane for a concert. It’s on their radar, Petty said: “I’ve heard many great things about Spokane. I would love to come there one day.”