Highspire is as exuberant and lovely as that moment, which in turn is as thrilling as the work of Quentin Tarantino. I am not talking about art that changes the world, but art made with boundless exuberance and passion. Whereas the Farrelly Brothers initiated careers and Tarantino revived them, Highspire's sensational love for shoegazer music frees the genre from its early nineties prison. It gives us music that's as alive as the first Kevin Shields demo, and as vital as anything by Ride. Highspire spent two years making Your Everything, and it feels as fresh as Zen Arcade (made in three days) or In God We Trust (made in three seconds).

The guitars swirl upward in "Skies You Climb", and add immediacy to Alex White's hopes ("I'll pray you down to Earth someday / I need you here and I can't escape"). Then the keyboards roll outward like Rain Parade Redux, and there's not a thing Alex could say ("You're fading in a day") that could make him disappear. If there was, he'd have done it in "Portsmouth", a trancy song that ignores the band's primary strength -- frothy emotion, dreamy guitars -- but still proves likeable. The track's circular rhythm will spin your bad thoughts around until they trip themselves up and disappear. "Sub-Par Life" is more subpar, and gives the impression that the band's current inspirations have not yet fully dissolved into their system. Such evidence is found less in songs like "No Day Like Today" than in the way these songs are performed -- by the numbers, as if some of the band members just don't give a shit about them.

Because Highspire was created out of love for early nineties music, it's possible that their best songs will always blend My Bloody Valentine, Dream Syndicate and Dream Theater. More likely, the disinterested party will slowly come to love another band member's Massive Attack or Moby albums and the group will revive yet another genre, pulling our new dreams to even bluer skies.

reviewed by: Theodore Defosse for Splendid

reviewed by: Ben Vendetta for Skyscraper #17

Highspire blend a massive, atmospheric concoction, taking their cue from the cascading guitar washes of Ride, Slowdive, Chapterhouse, and My Bloody Valentine along with mild splashes of Stone Roses and Charlatans inspired dance-pop. This spellbinding combination is staggering on tracks like the colossal opening number "Until The Lights Go Down," as trippy and gripping as anything by the early Verve; the Ride meets Massive Attack bliss of "Skies You Climb"; the seductive "Glass In My Mouth," which combines a rumbling Peter Hook-like bass line with shards of blissful guitar effects, and perhaps best-of-all the epic pop masterpieces "Fade In A Day"and "Shattered" where White's melodies shine ever so brightly.

reviewed by: Rob Devlin for Brainwashed

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, EJ 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.

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.

reviewed by: Tim Peacock for Whisperin and Hollerin

The sound of Your Everything is huge and amazing!

The music is comprised of wispy male vocals, layers of guitars, synths and drums. The lushness of the sound is almost unbelievable. "Until The Lights Go Down" starts with electronic blips and drums which is followed by guitars so big, it may have damaged my speakers. "Skies You Climb" is reminiscent of Ride's song "Vapour Trail" with it's acoustic guitar and cello. In addition to the mountainous guitar songs, there are a few tracks that have a snazzy contemporary lounge feel. Programmed drums, long synths, jazzy bass and even some samples for added effect. "No Day Like Today" mixes these two styles. It opens sounding like a Portishead track, but that's soon interrupted by a blast of thunderous guitars. Another highlight is "Love Me Or Leave Me." It switches between heavily reverbed guitars and jangly chords backed by distortion.

Your Everything is an ambitious affair with nearly unlimited twists and turns. [4.5 stars]

reviewed by: Chad Kempfert for About.com

Many moons ago this publication espoused the vitues of dreampop, a genre of music that was as sublime as it was ethereal, dream like collages creating mood inducing atmospherics, all the while never departing from the central ideal of developing a colossal wall of sound of symphonic pop. From a personal point of view if I was pushed to offer up an album that pinpointed this style perfectly it would have to be this one, packed to the rafters with shimmering, serrated guitars, that glide heavenly creating colourful swirls to engage the listener.

It seems to me through repeated plays that this quartet founded in 2000 by Messrs Hagen and White have a keen ear for all things early 90’s UK guitar pop, that’s not say that this album is retro or copyist, far from it, this is your total fully paid up flame grilled original, soaring guitar chords, cavernous back drops and celestial melodies carved from towering ice topped monuments. That said the style though polished and tightened fixates around the so-called shoe gazing era of pop rock, reference points immediately conjure up the magnificent Ride and early Charlatans, throw in a bit of the dearly missed Kitchens of Distinction and Slowdive, the pre ‘Wake up’ Boo Radleys circa ‘Tortoise shell’ and best of all the remnants of the divine Chameleons cascade lovingly through these arcing. Maybe all this is detracting from the album itself, and what an album it is, high powered no nonsense classicism. Opening with the rush of the carved glacial treads of ‘Until the lights go down’, a track of such omnipresent magnitude and sounding like angels harnessing the rush of hurricanes for their own sonic entertainment. ‘Believe’ quickly follows strummed open chords herald the fanfares of the brass barks, very uplifting. ‘Fade in a day’ cruises beneath a majestic, while ‘Shattered’ evokes the union of The Ramones grooving with prime time ‘Jesus and Chain’. Changing emphasis slightly is the instrumental ‘Sub par life, a brilliant death’ which sees the band loosen up with a seriously chunky bass giving an almost funky sheen to it all. ‘No day like today’ is probably the high point all said and done, haunting atmospherics with subtle John Barry-esque edges to it. Last and by no means least the enigmatic though creepy entreaties of ‘Turn for the worse’ bubbles in watery effects to a mysterious conclusion. BY leaving the CD running for at least ten minutes after the close of the final track you get a hidden track that acts somewhat out of sync with the rest of the album, nonetheless the hallucogenic drone like echo effects had s all yip yip yipping here. Precious.

reviewed by: Mark Barton for Losing Today Magazine

Most of the tracks are winners, with special attention due to the catchy, swaying chorus of "Fade In A Day" the aggressive "Shattered," with its surreal imagery of "vomiting true love," "drinking banana bleach" and "bleeding smoke rings" and the cool, jazzy instrumental interlude, "Sub-Par Life, A Brilliant Death." Only the aloof, trip-hoppy electronics of "Portsmouth" and "No Day Like Today" disappoint. But these are quickly overshadowed by the aggressive, motorik drumming of current member Kevin Fassett on "Vesperbell" and the swirling pop psychedelia of "Glass In My Mouth," which is vintage Charlatans, ca. Some Friendly (i.e., back when they were great at copying The Stone Roses) and will also appeal to fans of Pacific Northwest psychedeviants, such as Portland's Dandy Warhols and Seattle's Voyager One.

Now that they've got the all-important debut under their belts, it'll be interesting to see what they come up with next. Nine different members played on these recordings, and a tenth (Isaac Betesh) is listed in the "current Highspire lineup" in the credits. Having previously recruited members from as far away as Alabama and California and having even briefly relocated to New York to attempt to make a go of it, it remains to be seen and heard what will become of future efforts. Also, the rhythm section on three of the album's better tracks ("Fade In A Day," "Shattered" and "Glass In My Mouth") has moved on, so the next release may have a completely different vibe. But the one at hand is one of this year's best and will be garnering continued spins around these parts.

reviewed by: Jeff Penczak for fakejazz.com

The album opens with pops and clicks over atmospheric guitar. "Until the Lights Go Down" is a well done shoegazer-oriented song. Actually, this song is no indication of what comes later on in the album as far as their innovation is concerned. Although this is so, the song is well crafted, and White's vocals remind me of a cross between label mate Jeremy Wrenn's (Airiel) and Kevin Shield's (My Bloody Valentine) vocals. Hagen's bass work really throbs behind the lush guitars and keys. A great opener for this disc.

Track 2, "Skies You Climb", really takes the listener back. Rather than more noisy guitars, this song begins with acoustic guitar, violin, and floating vocals. Bass joins in and eventually distorted pillows of electric guitar. As the song progresses, more layers of guitar and percussion fill the quiet. This song is beautiful and hypnotic, showing that the band is much more that your typical shoegazer band. Lyrically, the song seems very stream of consciousness, yet it is certainly centered around the death of someone dear. This lyrical style permeates the rest of the disc as well. "Fade in a Day" vaguely reminds me of some of the great 80's bands. The chorus shows their ability to display Highspire's great pop sensibilities over spacious guitar. "Portsmouth" was another great surprise on this disc. It has a serious backbeat with a wonderful bass line. Again, this songs shows that White is vocally versatile. His vocals remind me of an ethereal Simon Le Bon. "Portsmouth" is certainly one of the gems on the disc. "Shattered" is probably the most straightforward noise pop song on the disc. Again, White changes up his vocal style to fit the song. The lyrics are poetic and evoke images about a relationship with someone important.

"Sub Par Life, Brilliant Death" is the only instrumental on the disc and they even deliver in this category. This song has percussion and bass heavy with ghost like keys and even some vocal additions way in the background. It is a mid-tempo song that is on the upbeat side despite the name of the song. "No Day Like Today" is a slow tempo song that has great, space-oriented keys. Eventually the song climbs into noisy guitars and fades back into the slow landscapes with White's ethereal vocals. Then, just when you think the song is over, it fades back into a sort of instrumental reprise.

If you like diversity and innovation, check out Highspire. Honestly, I was expecting a typical shoegazer band and I got more than I bargained for, and with the disc clocking in at over an hour, it is more than worth the money. They are able to take great pop sensibilities and wrap them in a shoegazer stew filled with 80's influences, noise pop and much, much more.

reviewed by: Jason for Somewhere Cold

reviewed by: Connell Burton McDaniel for Synthesis