If I could accurately sum up Vertical Horizon’s sound in a short phrase, I’d have to label them “Top 40 Rock”. It’s the sound that very few of us can escape when we turn on any modern radio station – here in Los Angeles, it’s the softer end of KROQ, the louder end of KOST, and the epitome of STAR. In other words (for those who don’t live in L.A.), it’s that guitar-driven, but not too loud and obnoxious, stuff that makes its way just about everywhere by grabbing hold of a catchy formula and sticking with it. It’s not heavy metal, and it’s not teen pop, and yet fans of both are often drawn to it. Think Matchbox 20 without the bitter anger, Collective Soul without the bone-crushing riffs, or a less raspy and left-of-center Goo Goo Dolls, and you’ll start to get the picture. A lot of music critics mock it for not being daring enough, and yet this is the stuff that ends up everywhere.

This particular critic yawned a few times during his first few listens to Vertical Horizon’s CD. I had heard their smash hit “Everything You Want” on the radio numerous times, and I recalled catching a few clips of “You’re a God”, and the lyrics were enough to intrigue me. I figured that Vertical Horizon might be one of those bands whose creativity wasn’t always apparent in their radio singles, who perhaps had some real gems buried deeper in their albums, beyond the reach of your run-of-the-mill radio DJ’s. So it surprised me when I first downloaded the tracks that only two of them really rocked (and even those were a bit restrained), while the rest of the album followed an inoffensive pattern of simple drum beats, unobtrusive electric and acoustic guitar leads, and typical verse-chorus song structure. I dismissed it all as “just another typical pop/rock album”, with perhaps a song or two worth keeping. But as is usually the case, the record was chock full of catchy melodies (carried by two great vocalists) and memorable, heartfelt songwriting (even if the lyrics were a bit vague for the most part). I decided to buy the album after all, and I have enjoyed it quite a bit despite its ordinary nature. Everything You Want has enormous single potential in almost all of its songs, and yet the entire package manages to speak to a unified theme instead of just being a compilation of good singles.

We Are
Seven days and not a return
Seven lives and not a thing learned…
To the band’s credit, the CD starts off with a good jolt – they just start rocking out without so much as an intro. Almost immediately the vocals join in with a repeated, “We are, we are…”, and then the music backs off for the verses, during which a tweaked guitar in the background adds a slightly haunting feel to a great song. I’ll admit to not having much of an idea as to the meaning of this song, other than the general aura of being lost that the band gives off. They sing about “taking a lover on the highway” and so forth, making this a great traveling song. When lead singer Matt Scannell tells us, “I don’t know how, and I don’t know where we are”, he sounds more fascinated than confused with his predicament, and the overall tone seems to be one of wonder and slight confusion instead of fear. It’s predictable, as nearly every track is on this album, but definitely a great song.

You’re a God
I’ve been unable to put you down
I’m still learning things I ought to know by now…
At first, this song seemed a bit out of place this early in the album – the dry percussion and muted guitars that open the song trick you into thinking this will be a more easygoing, mid-tempo tune, and then the guitars kick in with a little more raw power during the chorus. For the most part, this single is still firmly planted in pop-land, and it did quite well on the radio – my favorite of the three singles I’ve heard on the radio so far. This song had to earn its keep – I was initially a bit put off by the title, assuming this was a gooey declaration of worship for the perfect girl. I guess I never considered that maybe the song was actually about God, but that interpretation still doesn’t seem to work when you pay attention to more cynical lines like “We’re covered in lies and that’s okay.” I’ve come to understand this as a sarcastic song for a girlfriend who always had to have everything her way. You know the type – she’s always right, and she doesn’t think your ideas are ever all that important, and yet you’re a total fool for her love. “You’re a god and I’m not.” The lyrics are vague enough not to directly insult this person, but it seems clear that the relationship is a bit dysfunctional, and Matt sings with a bit of resignation, as if he feels unworthy. As this track leads into the next one, the theme of the album begins to take shape.

Everything You Want
Under skinned knees and the skid marks
Past the places where you used to learn
You howl and listen, listen and wait
For the echoes of angels who won’t return…
Just about everyone has heard this song enough to recognize its memorable guitar intro, tweaked and synthesized considerably, but soon joined by an acoustic guitar to give a good balance between the band’s folk roots and their new full-band status (two of the four members joined either during the creation of this album or right before). This was the single that made Vertical Horizon huge, and though I’ve heard it one too many times for it to be one of my favorites on the album, I have to say that the lyrics and the tune are rock solid here. The verses describe a mysterious individual who seems to travel through life without finding anything that makes her happy, continually missing opportunities to learn and grow from her failures. The chorus boldly informs her of her remedy in an almost religious manner: “He’s everything you want, he’s everything you need/He’s everything inside of you that you wish you could be/He says all the right things at exactly the right time/But he means nothing to you and you don’t know why.” Who is this vague “he”? It’s tempting to think it might be God, but more likely, it’s a lonely guy who just wants a chance at love, since “he” changes to “I” at the end of the song. For every guy who honestly felt he had what it would take to make a girl happy, and yet she never gave him so much as a chance, this song’s for you. While the music is a little smoother and the guitars seem more toned down than the first two tracks, it still carries the momentum of the album quite nicely.

Best I Ever Had (Grey Sky Morning)
So you stole my world
Now I’m just a phony
Remembering the girl
Leaves me down and lonely…
From the softly strummed electric guitar intro to this song, to Matt’s sad vocals, to the melancholy keyboard effects in the background, everything about this hit single screams “loneliness”. The song is more stripped down, if a bit muted production-wise, and it seems to be resonating with people in just about every stage of a relationship imaginable. Those who long for love, those who have had a lover leave them, those whose lovers are far away or even dead… it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know when you’ve got a hit love ballad on your hands. I tend to think that most of these people are missing the meaning behind the song. It starts out lonely, reminiscing about the girl who “sailed away into a grey sky morning”, and the music really paints a good picture of the cloudy sky and the “boring” life of the lover left behind. But as the song unfolds, the chorus changes one key line each time, first lamenting that “you don’t want me back”, then understanding that “you don’t need me back”, and finally having the guts to admit that it’s over: “I don’t want you back; you’re only the best I ever had.” The wordplay here is rather subtle – the word “only” could mean “You’re the best I could get at the time and I’ll find someone better”, or it could be sarcastic, something like. “Sure, you’re only the greatest girl in the whole wide world! No big deal, don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine without you. Yeah, right…” Perhaps she dumped him and it took him a while to figure out why, but it hits hard when Matt asserts during the bridge that “you’re always right”. It’s a sentiment I can relate to at this stage in my life.

You Say
It helps you out knowing I’m left out
Locked in a box with a light that won’t shine…
The music here is a little thicker - I wanted to say “heavier” at first, but that would imply that the band rocked out on this song, and since this one feels like it’s slower than it should be, I don’t want to give you any misconception. Something about it doesn’t seem quite right, and the lyrics are pretty vague, especially the chorus: “You say, what did I say, what did you say, we just go away.” Huh? I get the vague feeling from Matt’s verses that he thinks the girl who left him is enjoying his suffering – in some ways, the themes explored here made this album a good predecessor to Matchbox 20’s Mad Season. He refers to being “here in the light” but not being able to shine, because he feels like he’s no good without her. One of the most interesting lyrics comes at the end: “Left alone forever, all alone together.” But even a wonderful oxymoron like that can’t save this song from its overall mediocrity. It’s not bothersome enough to make me skip it, but it is one of the reasons why Vertical Horizon is good but not truly great. (Side note: Is it just me, or are there seagulls or some other birds calling in the background?)

Finding Me
Oh, so much for nothing
But nothing means so much
I know it’s touching
But I’ve been out of touch…
This song kicks in with a stronger beat, keeping a more consistent flow than the usual quiet verse/strong chorus method of most of VH’s songs. Lyrically, this is one of the most poignant songs on the album – even if you don’t know what it’s about, you’ll likely be grabbed by the seemingly masochistic line “Don’t tell me how to be, ‘cause I like some suffering.” Most of us tend to forget that suffering often does us a lot of good – it makes us grow, even if it’s not something we’d enter into voluntarily. The source of suffering is likely loneliness over a breakup (isn’t it usually in pop songs?), but this song seems to back away from that relationship, addressing a friend who is trying to cheer him up and seems to honestly mean well, but isn’t really doing any good. You know how people are when you’re going through something rough – they just start “going off” onto clichés and platitudes and whatever else they can come up with to show concern, but they really don’t know how to help you. Matt seems to be shrugging off the unhelpful advice, insisting he can deal with it on his own and learn the hard way if that’s what it takes. It’s a great tune that defies its upbeat, poppy nature with its words, and I happen to know that fellow reviewer flamepillar is a big fan of this one.

Miracle
You never really know what it is until it goes
And if it comes again, it’s a miracle…
Things slow down again here for another attempt at a pretty love ballad, but the beat seems mostly plodding here, and Matt’s pronunciation of “meeeee-racle” borders on annoying at times. It’s a pretty simple “you don’t know what you’ve got ‘til you’ve lost it” type of song, in which a jilted lover is hoping to one day find love again. It seems like it would take a miracle when you’re in such a rough period of you’re life. Perhaps Matt is addressing a girl who is lonely on the song, or perhaps himself – I’m never sure if the “trace inside her face of a lonely miracle” is something inside of herself that she has yet to find, or simply her hiding her feelings for him. As with “You Say” – not a bad song, but there are better ballads on this album.

Send It Up
Oh, you’re making me safe now
Oh, you’re making the faces disappear…
This one starts off with a guitar riff that seems like it should give way to a real jangly, fun song – but that goal is never fully realized. Instead, another plodding beat (this one’s a little faster than the last one) gives way to a lyrical therapy session, in which Matt sings the praises of a lover or friend who “makes me lay down” and “forget I am here”. Perhaps he wrote a song for his therapist? Or perhaps his priest? The answer to his problems seems to be “Send it up”, but again, everything’s so vague here that I’m not so sure what “it” is, where “it” is being sent up to, and who’s “up” there to take care of it. The line “I’m alright, by the way, everyone saves the day” is interesting, though it only adds to the murkiness of the song’s meaning. I’d like to dig deeper and figure this one out, but at this point in the CD, it’s a little easier to lose interest and just tune out until the next song.

Give You Back
I can’t remember how it went
You looked like everything I wanted
And as you came along, slowly everything began to change
I got you now…
Here we go – another gut wrenching song dealing with lost love. If it weren’t for an even slower pace than “Best I Ever Had” and a fairly monotonous chord sequence, this could likely be a good follow-up single to the aforementioned smash hit. Where “Best I Ever Had” was mostly cathartic, “Give You Back” deals more specifically with the problem that apparently derailed the relationship (or at least, as specifically as we can expect from Vertical Horizon). Matt’s assumption here seems to be that she was being fake – either she led him on to get something she wanted and then dropped him once she was finished with him, or she was simply trying to be someone she couldn’t be. It’s heartbreaking to hear him ask her: “I need to know if you were real, ‘cause I’ve been known to get it wrong.” He almost jumps to the conclusion without waiting for her answer, the unassuming line “I got you now” implying that he’s onto her. If asked what went wrong, he’ll simply say “I was blinded by your eyes” – in other words, he was thrown for a loop by an attractive and deceitful woman. Knowing what she really is now, he has no more use for her. Ouch.

All of You
I tend to think I’m getting nowhere
I drag it out whenever I can…
While this tune keeps roughly the same tempo as “Send It Up”, it doesn’t feel as bogged down due to slightly more aggressive guitars as the song builds to the chorus, which helps to shake up the overall sameness of many of these songs. On the surface, the song seems likely a pretty simple plea for a lover not to leave, but a closer look reveals that same frustration with a lack of communication that was hinted at in a few other songs. Apparently Matt is at an impasse – if he stays quiet, she’ll get frustrated, and if he tries to talk, he’ll spout of endlessly, only prolonging the agony of a relationship gone bad. All he knows is that he still wants her – a lot of her. All of her. Maybe I’m reading more into the lyrics than what’s really there, but when the band has only left you with a few vague brushstrokes, you kind of have to paint your own picture. Though I have complained here and there about that, it’s actually kind of interesting to see how different people interpret songs like these, where a single line can denote a world of relational difficulties that so many of us have dealt with before.

Shackled
So here I slave inside of a broken dream
Forever holding on to splitting seams
So take your piece and leave me alone to die
I don’t need you to keep my faith alive…
Buried at the end of the album lies Everything’s true masterpiece – the only song that breaks the five-minute barrier, and also the only song featuring the delicious but chilling vocals of Keith Kane (who apparently shared the lead about 50/50 with Matt before this album – what an injustice!) It starts off as an acoustic ballad, likely something that Keith came up with on his own and then brought to the rest of the band to be fleshed out. This song is a haunting goodbye to a troubled relationship, and Keith uses several vivid metaphors to describe it as an imprisonment from which he has been set free (even going so far as to use the Biblical “rapture” metaphor, which is interesting, since the spiritual leanings of the group are often debated in Christian music circles). Just as Keith brings his acoustic intro to a halt and spits out the ultimatum “Let me introduce you to the end”, the rest of the band comes slamming in – this isn’t hard rock, mind you, but it definitely borrows from the finer moments of the 80’s monster ballads, as well as the work of Collective Soul. We actually get a few real guitar solos – nothing terribly long, but it still injects a good dose of energy into this song, making it a true standout in a somewhat sterile musical environment. Keith’s final line: “Time will burn your eyes”, echoes off into nowhere, and Matt rips into one last guitar solo before the whole thing very suddenly shuts down and the CD ends, leaving the listener wanting so much more.

If this album left me wanting, how can I give it four stars? Well, for typical pop/rock, I wouldn’t call it trite. The lyrics are good on almost every song, and many of them end up stuck in my head (in a good way). The hit singles are omnipresent on the radio, and yet I never have the urge to change channels when one of them comes on. Vertical Horizon is just a friendly band – to my musical tastes and to the tastes of many others. They could fully realize their status as a great band if they’d take more care to make the songs stand apart from each other, and if Matt would back off a bit on the next album and let Keith sing some more (don’t get me wrong, Matt has one of the coolest voices in modern music, but I’d love to see more balance between the two), I’m sure we’d have a fantastic disc on our hands that would set the bar for radio-friendly rock music for years to come. People would notice the band’s uniqueness, and maybe they might even score a hit that takes a while to grow on people and then becomes huge, instead of just having its hit status taken for granted. (Songs that have to grow on you are always the best kind, aren’t they?)

TRACK REVIEW SUMMARY
Excellent: Shackled, We Are, You're a God, Best I Ever Had (Grey Sky Morning)
Good: Everything You Want, Finding Me
Decent: You Say, Miracle, Give You Back, All of You
Weak: Send It Up
Skippable: NONE

Band Members:
Matt Scannell: Lead vocals, electric and acoustic guitars, keyboards
Keith Kane: Vocals, acoustic guitars
Sean Hurley: Bass guitar
Ed Toth, Drums, percussion

Website: http://www.verticalhorizon.com


Recommended: Yes

Great Music to Play While: Driving