Get Highness

Over the last couple of years I've stumbled upon some bands that have really surprised me with how much I fell in love with them. Crusades came out of nowhere in 2011, and Gypsy climbed into my Top 10 list for 2012. Lately, I've been wondering if I'll find the same surprise this year. I'm not saying that Highness is going to be that band, but I can't believe how much I've listened to this LP.

Back in the mid 90's, I bought a few Christie Front Drive records. Cool emo stuff, from a time when the term emo was starting wear a little thin. I don't actively seek this style out these days, and when a saw a friend post about a new band that featured someone from Christie Front Drive, I ignored his praise. A few days later he was still raving about the band and posted a link where you could stream and download the album for free. Honestly, years ago, I wouldn't have bothered with this band. I had no desire to hear mid-90's emo these days, but I started thinking back about what I would have missed out on if I'd ignored Marcus when he was talking about Gypsy. Maybe I should just give it a quick listen before dismissing it.

As soon as the first song started, there was no denying the Christie Front Drive connection. Same vocals...same winding guitar parts. Much to my surprise, I was hooked, and found myself listening to a lot of Christie Front Drive and Highness over the next couple of days.

I was so mesmerized with these two bands that I came very close to ordering a reissue of the Christie Front Drive album. Whoa whoa whoa. Let's calm down, Mike. I owned the original, and it's not like I was going to start collecting this band. Did I really need another copy just because it was on colored vinyl? In the end cooler heads prevailed, I skipped on the Christie Front Drive reissue, and just stuck with a copy of the Highness record.