Highspire - Your Everything
(Clairecords)
Auburn Lull returns after a few years recording in grain silos and living rooms to offer up Cast From the Platform, their second full length. With this album, the band strikes out on no new territory, but the results are still fulfilling. The trademark glaze of guitar, the simple Cure-ish basslines, the minimal echoed drumming, and Sean Heenan's whispery vocals are in full effect throughout Cast From the Platform and haven't lost their hypnotizing quality.
It's rare when a band that sounds so much like their predecessors can still manage to breath new life into a tired genre. This is absolutely the case with Auburn Lull, who sound so much like Slowdive that it's almost comical. Nevertheless, there is a certain shimmer and movement to this group of songs that is entirely their own. Perhaps it's the inventive drum patterns, such as the one featured on "Building Fifty", that allow the listener to focus on something other than the cookie cutter shoegaze guitars. Maybe it's the time stretching minimalism featured on songs like "Sinking Meridian" and most eloquently presented on the untitled track 12. Make no mistake about it, Auburn Lull is head and shoulders above the rest of the "nu-gaze" movement.
I think that Cast From the Platform shows that there was still life in the whole shoegaze thing when the music press decided to kill it off. The sounds of the entire genre are so overwhelmingly beautiful that it would be almost impossible to deny the relevance and artistry of pioneers such as Robin Guthrie and Kevin Shields. With this new album, Auburn Lull can add their name to a small list of bands that do this thing right.
On the other hand, Highspire can add their name to a long list of bands that don't get it quite right. Your Everything is a schizophrenic, jarring collection of songs that show potential and songs that make me want to jump off a cliff.
The album opens up with "Until the Lights Go Down," a track that shows an affinity for early Verve and has a lot of potential. Aside from the weak sounding digitalized drums and faux (I assume) Brit accent, there's really nothing wrong here... it's nice enough. Things start going downhill when on "Skies You Climb," Alex White sings the entire song with the same 3 note pattern... over and over again, ad infinitum, until a lackluster guitar solo comes in to put me out of my misery. There's just nothing interesting or new on this song or, for that matter, any song on the album.
Your Everything does have its moments of inspiration such as the first half of "Fade In a Day," which features a nice enough chord progression and some decent singing, and the near-excellent Jesus & Mary Chain-istic "Shattered." However, they're not able to get past the incredible missteps that are "Portsmouth," "Sub Par Life, A Brilliant Death," and "No Day Like Today". These three songs show Highspire veering off into an electronic chill out room vibe that is truly disastrous. The basslines are redundant, the canned drumming is uninspired and thin, and the singing can't stand up to the scrutiny that comes with having a minimal background to work off of. Alex White is no Beth Gibbons, and it really shows.
Without those three songs and with some real drumming and some more interesting basslines, Your Everything could be a fine example of new shoegaze. However, taking this album as it is I'd have to say that there are just too many flaws to overlook.
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