|
reviews
|
opinions were like kittens i was giving them away. -modest mouse
there's nothing as something as one. -e. e. cummings
|
Interact
Discuss High Dive and all of your favorite musicians and bands in our music forum/message board.
Have you heard this album? Give us your rating above, 5 being best.
"There heroes’ wits are kept in ponderous vases,
And beaus’ in snuff-boxes and tweezer-cases;
There broken vows and death-bed alms are found,
And lovers’ hearts with ends of ribbon bound;
The courtier’s promises, the sick man’s prayers,
The smiles of harlots, and the tears of heirs;
Cages for gnats, and chains to yoke a flea,
Dried butterflies, and tomes of casuistry."
—Alexander Pope on Limbo: Rape of the Lock, v. (1712).
Track listing:
01 The Final Round
02 Near You
03 Melody Poem
04 On and On
|
There's something wholly ethereal about the newest EP from The High Dive, On And On, not necessarily in the heavenly way, but rather in the light and intangible sense of the word. If any music can take you to another place, this music can. This quality of "limbo" stems directly from the man behind The High Dive, James Walls, who recently moved from Seattle (also from the rest of the band) to Southern California and from there he took off into his own state of "limbo," (in his words) and played on his own. After spending his young life playing in different bands with some very different styles that ran from ska to retro to blues, he arrived at this dreamy amalgamation of sounds that is The High Dive.
The sounds of The High Dive run closer to indie pop than anything else, are laced with reeds, and topped off with layers of the voice, similar to the sensitive and smooth voice of Belle & Sebastian's Stuart Murdoch, of James Walls. When Walls sings of going "into a rolling green horizon" against the rolling guitar, you're there. The High Dive's capacity for escape is nothing short of amazing, this would be great soundtrack music in the same way that Johnny and Santo's "Sleepwalking" is.
|
This ability to transport the listener to a another state is evident just as much, and maybe even more so, in the lyrics. These are lyrics that could have come straight out of a book, poetic in nature, and all dealing with states of relationship limbo, of "lovers' hearts with ends of ribbon bound." "The Final Round" deals with the uneasy feeling of unknowing in a relationship, one of those off/on deals that never seem to end, and the desire of the pained for it to end: "You wait for a great day to come, Oh how the embers glow, you think you know, there's a flame to fan again. But hateful, painful words tell the end." The music remains upbeat, and the voice diplomatic, "Hey, have you had enough? Do we call it all done?" The previously mentioned, and most escapist song on the disc, "Near You," also shows some relationship uncertainty, shifting from lines like "I won't be weak, and I won't be near you" to "running away from you into a blue horizon, your famous charming eyes and the water rushing through, running back to you." It uses nature allusions, along with a mixture of layers of velvety voices that do almost sound like the wind and water and an island beat to transport the listener. "Melody Poem" also relies on natural images as well as horns to convey the same oblivious theme of the cold lonliness of lovers' limbo. Walls ends on a more positive note with "On and On," but I won't divulge the lyrics here, but save them for those who should listen to this or the full-length in the works.
The High Dive does great things with reeds, though at a few points those horns were a bit heavy for me, but at others, I was so into the music that I found myself asking, "why the hell aren't they signed?" I urge you to check out the site, The High Dive where James Walls is giving the EP away for free, and give this or the previous EP a listen. Especially if you can relate to any of what Alexander Pope was talking about.
-Jennifer Hall 04/21/04
|
|
