Last year, W&H were excited to discover a fantastic debut album by US West Coasters The Meeting Places called "Find Yourself Along The Way." An exhilarating record, it suggested - against the critical odds - that pale, thoughtful boys with smart boho ideals, romanticism and bagfuls of FX pedals were back after a decade in the wilderness.
The Meeting Places showed that 'shoegazing' and 'dream pop' were waking from a lengthy slumber and now Philadelphia's HIGHSPIRE have weighed in with another fabulously dreamy album broadly in the same vein where hypnotic rhythms abound, honeyed melodies come soaked in chorus and delay and opiated vocals drift enticingly through the ether.
Sadly, the album's road to fruition has left its' scars on HIGHSPIRE, who have endured more than their fair share of setbacks en route. "Your Everything" has taken the best part of three years to piece together with founder members Alex White (vocals) and EJ Hagen (guitars) working all manner of crummy jobs just to live and record these songs. At one juncture, Alex even suffered the loss of his guitars, FX pedals and tapes when his room was burglarized. Add the inevitable line-up changes and abject poverty to this list of ills and the very fact "Your Everything" has finally arrived - and sounding so resplendant - is testament to the strength of both perseverence and the human will.
Happily, "Your Everything" really was worth all the pain and strife. Highspire describe their sound as "groovegaze" and suggest: "the biggest hat we wear is shoegaze", both of which are fair appraisals. However, while such influences do peek through, "Your Everything" is an exhilarating, intriguing record by its' own design and - along the way - throws a few nice curveballs, thank you very much.
Sure, some of these songs refer back to the floppy-fringed explosion of the early '90s. Excellent opener "Until The Lights Go Down" presents a huge, mantra-style swirl of sound with a bassy undertow reminiscent of forgotten heroes Loop, while nagging, punkier tracks like "Shattered", "Fade In A Day" and "Believe" are wonderfully noisy breathren of Ride's early template. All are superb, and with "Fade In A Day" they have a potential killer single, with white hot guitars, mesmeric vocals and even harmonies sliding happily into the mix.
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But that's not the whole story. Indeed, "Your Everything" is equally notable for its' departures and there are several significant ones. Firstly, Highspire can do 'soundtrack' very effectively and to this end we get tracks like "Sub-Par Life, A Brilliant Death" which - with big, gated drums and a sleepily funky bassline - is actually as intriguing as its' title and the instrumental "Vesperbell", which appears to be built around a dance-y, machine-tooled groove and could almost be Radiohead.
The experimentation doesn't end there, either. Try "No Day Like Today", which pits backwards, psych-guitars against an atmosphere recalling Spiritualized and bassist Isaac Betesh giving it his best Jah Wobble. Magic, as is "Love Me Or Leave Me" which initially sounds like Depeche Mode before proceeding to conjure up a soundscape more redolent of Bristol's trip-hop pioneers. Disconcerting, but largely excellent.
One swallow doesn't make a summer, and while "Your Everything" is similar in spirit to The Meeting Places' also-superb "Find Yourself Along The Way", both records stand firmly on their own two feet and certainly don't require the attentions of spurious new scenes to make their way in the world. However, the fact remains that dreamy, FX-fuelled guitar pop is making its' presence felt in the US and with "Your Everything" Highspire suggest the sky's the veritable limit. The first great best-kept secret of 2004? Yup, could well be.
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