To Where You Are

wears it influences on its record sleeve...:
...and in this case its not a bad thing. too many folks have tried and failed to revive the shoegaze movement, and while i don't think for one second high violets are trying to revive shoegazing, 'to where you are' certainly takes the best of what shoegazing had to offer without ever sacrficing melody and vocal clarity in favor of atmosphere. kaitlyn ni donovan is a great vocalist, by the way. she's liz frazier without the effects, harriet wheeler turned down an octave. the band, too, are great. they seemed to have mastered the pop/rock song the same way andy chase and adam schlesinger from ivy have. they are supreme craftsmen and woman. the album starts off with a couple of shoegazy songs straight out of 1992. 'sun baby' and 'love is blinding' smack of lush more than anyone else, but are on the whole much stronger songs than lush ever created (and i love lush). 'chinese letter' might be my favorite song on the album. it's a glorious song that might not have been out of place on the cocteau twins 'heaven or las vegas.' 'invitation' sounds like something off the sundays 'static and silence. the first curve ball comes in 'cool green,' a bundle of dancy energy complete with sleighbells at the halfway point, that while it doesn't necessarily 'fit' in with the rest of the album, is still such a joy to listen to that you're so glad it's there. it's also the most straightforward song on the album in terms of production. having said all that however, the high violets don't sound derivitive of any of the bands mentioned. it's a solid, atmopheric, pleasant and oft-exhilirating album by a band i hope we hear a lot more from. if you visit their website \o...\c you can download 'sun baby,' 'love is blinding' and 'cool green.' once you've heard those songs i'm sure you'll rush out and buy the album just like i did.

THIS HIGH VIOLETS ALBUM IS OUTSTANDING:
First of all if you do not own this CD (as well as the High Violets first record----the amazing 44 Down)---pick it up ASAP. The opening track "Sunbaby" is what guitar rock should be---JUST PURE POWER. "Love is Blinding" & "X-Tasy" are two stand out tracks that beg to be turned up. An absolute HOME RUN!!!!!!!!

Very uneven album with some brilliance and some disappointments:
This album is by a band which are these days being marketed as being part of the Neo-Shoegaze movement. While I agree that they definitely do have Shoegazer influences, upon buying their album I was disappointed to find that their link to Shoegaze turned out to be more tenuous than I had thought. After hearing the utter coolness that is songs like "Sun Baby" and "Want You" and the dreamy pop perfection of "Cool Green", I felt confident that I would love this album and rushed right out and bought it. But after listening to all the songs, I was extremely disappointed to discover that this album also includes songs like "Invitation" and "To Where You Are", which rather than Shoegaze, instead would seem to belong to the kind of sickly-sweet, vomit-inducing Sarah McLaughlin/Jann Arden-esque type femme-rock that I HATE. Although I am a bit old fashioned in my belief that rather than just downloading a few songs, people should buy entire albums in order to experience the entire work as the artists originally intended them to be heard, in this case I am left wishing that I had merely downloaded those songs that I liked, as I am left with about half an album of material that I strongly dislike. Therefore I would advise all Shoegaze fans considering this album to listen carefully to EVERY song before making a decision. There definitely are brilliant songs on here that DO deserve to be heard. But I just wish the band had been more consistent with their musical direction, as not all songs appealed to me as a fan of distorted guitar-heavy rock/Shoegaze.

3 1/2 stars What a sound! Shimmers, jangles, and roars.:
I heard the first four songs from To Where You Are on the internet, and bought the CD hoping the rest of the album would live up to that fine start. This is guitar-based rock. Jangly guitars, roaring fuzzed-out guitars, a synth added for a little texture, soaring solo guitar notes. Nothing virtuoso or flashy here -- it's all for moody effect, bathed in a full reverberent soundstage. Through it all, Kaitlyn Ni Donovan's pure smooth voice focuses the songs. Her diction is a little soft, and that tends to obscure the lyrics (not to the absurd level of Cocteau Twins), but I don't care. Her harmonies make Chinese Letters letters one of the prettiest and ethereal songs I heard all year. I was not quite as pleased with the second half of the album. The melodies and arrangements didn't strike me as addictively as those first four. I'm still glad I bought the album to encourage this band to keep refining their music. I can't think of any way they could improve the basic sound of their records. It envelopes and engages you, daring you not to listen. I could hope for more development in the lyrics, or maybe just better enunciation. And keep writing great simple melodies and harmonies. Much of this record is top-class and deserves a wider hearing. There aren't too many bands to which I could compare the sound of the High Violets. It is vaguely similar to some of the early work of Ivy, but sonically it is a little heavier and full-bodied than that. And yet, the High Violets is clearly "girl rock" with its pretty voices and melodies and sentiments. Long may they wave.