www.verticalhorizon.com
Vertical Horizon is: Matt Scannell - vocals, electric & acoustic guitar, keyboards; Keith Kane - vocals, acoustic guitar; Sean Hurley - bass; Ed Toth - drums, percussion
Skip to album: *Go *Everything You Wantjh: Vertical Horizon has a mature sound and pretty deep lyrics for a rock band and I'm all for that. This is a band with good music, catchy songs, not too much attention -- a winning formula. 'Adult pop' I think the critics classify Vertical Horizon as, but that sounds too much like a dirty backstreet boys video. Let's just call it 'dang good' and go from there.
Go - © 2003 RCA.
1. When You Cry
2. I'm Still Here
3. Forever
4. Sunshine
5. Goodbye Again
6. Echo
7. It's Over
8. One Of You
9. Won't Go Away
10. Inside
11. Underwater
[ listen/order at amazon.com ] [ listen/order at target.com ]
jh: I went out on a limb with this one. I asked for this CD having not heard a single track or read even a sentence of a review. But, if you've heard Everything You Want, you understand it's actually not a very small limb. A group of guys who can put together a full, varied but consistently sweet album like Everything You Want is not likely to suddenly suck when they release their next one. I've gotten a lot of 'second' discs lately -- CDs by bands whose older/newer stuff I've listened to for a long time -- so I feel like I'm doing way too much comparing. But so be it. In the case of Go, I think Vertical Horizon has built upon an already winning formula. Not that this was a problem, but Everything You Want was sort of pop-y for a rock album. It was done well, but "Shackled" left me wishing the entire CD had rocked as hard. Go is the answer to that wish. There are still soft songs, and they are still really good. However, there is also a healthier dose of the 'hard' stuff: "Sunshine" and "One of You" are wonderfully loud. The rest is the catchy 'not quite noisy rock but miles from sounding like a boy band' sort of rock that made Everything You Want great. If you like Vertical Horizon, get Go. If you don't, you ought to reconsider.
Everything You Want - © 1999 RCA.
1. We Are
2. You're A God
3. Everything You Want
4. Best I Ever Had (Grey Sky Morning)
5. You Say
6. Finding Me
7. Miracle
8. Send It Up
9. Give You Back
10. All Of You
11. Shackled
[ listen/order at amazon.com ] [ listen/order at target.com ]
jh: The title track nearly brought tears to my eyes the first time I heard it. Um...but yeah, this whole album is very well done. Even though a couple of the songs are pretty hard and some of the songs are real soft, Vertical Horizon has done an excellent job of fitting together a disc that flows great. I don't care much for one of the songs but the fact that right now I can't remember which one it is proves that I respect every song. And really, it's not very often that a rock band puts together a whole CD where none of the tracks feel like afterthoughts or filler - this is one of those rare albums. To sum up, I like this CD a bunch and "Shackled" is friggin great and if you like music, do yourself a favor and get Everything You Want. It is certainly no stranger to my car's cramped CD holder.