Vertical Horizon Go CD

Coming out of that 1990s niche of straightforward rock and roll bands like Matchbox Twenty and Train, Vertical Horizon continues mining the same vein of big hooks and riffs on their 2003 outing, GO. For their first album in four years, the lads worked with Melissa Etheridge/Corrs producer John Shanks, who strikes a balance between tastefully orchestrated numbers like the soaring "Forever" and more guitar-driven "Sunshine" and harder-rocking fare like the post-grunge "One of You" and "Echo," with its sprinkling of catchy power chords throughout.

Pop also shows up big on Vertical Horizon's radar, and this quartet does fine dabbling in these quarters by way of the chugging opener "When You Cry" and the more harmony-laden "I'm Still Here." Despite the paucity of power ballads, sensitive sorts will still find plenty to tuck into from the ruminative "Underwater" to the acoustic-guitar-kissed "Won't Go Away." GO finds the lads in Vertical Horizon not missing a step despite the lengthy break between album releases.

As vapid as nu-metal became once the pump backed up and started spewing its smelly backwash onto the stages of Ozfest, the fresh-scent hallways of what the industry calls "hot AC" might be just as empty. While the metal guys' latent high-school anger and crushed-velvet posturing is pretty hard to take, at least they get to turn up the amps and kick out the jock jams. In the beige world of hot adult contemporary, interchangeable white guys rock test-marketed riffs under a relatively distinguishable frontman's greeting-card haiku. Goofy nu-metallers may make music for chest-bumping in the arenas, but these guys are stuck writing soundtracks for Pottery Barn. In 1999, Vertical Horizon didn't have much with which to follow its breakthrough single, "Everything You Want." And yet the song's percolating groove provided enough sustenance for listeners led astray by Secret Samadhi, Live's pompous follow-up to Throwing Copper. Now, Vertical has returned with Go, an album that proves the band's lack of ideas wasn't a fluke, and reaffirms their status as third-tier imitators. "When You Cry" stands in for "Everything You Want" and introduces the album's catch phrase psychotherapy. "I can't wait until you let me down," Matthew Scannell sings over store-bought modern rock. "I'm Still Here" seems to cross the band's 1999 hit with Michelle Branch's "Everywhere," which was produced by Go helmer John Shanks. It's tiresome to keep making comparisons, but it's impossible not to when Vertical Horizon smothers whatever college rock identity it may have once had in layers of insipid radio filler. "Echo" is at once Go's hookiest and most opaque moment. As the familiar acoustic/electric, quiet-loud formula is applied yet again, Scannell indicts his band with another trite lyricism. "I don't want to be just another echo," he sings, evidently not realizing that he already is. [This version of the album includes the bonus track "Better When You're Not There."] ~ Johnny Loftus

In 1999, Vertical Horizon didn't have much with which to follow its breakthrough single,

Recorded at Henson Studios and Image Studios, Hollywood, California.

Vertical Horizon: Keith Kane, Matthew Scannell, Ed Toth, Sean Hurley.

Personnel: Matthew Scannell (vocals, guitar, keyboards, programming); Keith Kane (vocals, guitar); Patrick Warren (chamberlin, keyboards); John Shanks (keyboards, programming); Sean Hurley (bass guitar); Ed Toth (drums, percussion).

Audio Mixers: Chris Lord-Alge; Ben Grosse.

Recording information: Henson Recording Studios, Hollywood, CA.

Editors: Daniel Chase; Mark Valentine; Jeff Rothschild.

Photographers: Matthew Scannell; Frank W. 3 Ockenfels.

Vertical Horizon: Matt Scannell (vocals, guitar, keyboards, programming); Keith Kane (vocals, guitar); Sean Hurley (bass); Ed Toth (drums, percussion).

Additional personnel: John Shanks, Patrick Warren.

Additional personnel: Patrick Warren (chamberlain, keyboards); John Shanks (keyboards, programming).