New Music: Higharts – ‘Memory Lane’ album review

This review was submitted by HeavyPetal. If you would like to contribute to All-Noise, get in touch on [email protected]

Higharts – Memory Lane

There’s a lot of music around at the moment and not all of it’s good. More often than not when I get sent a new album by an unsigned band I either get good songs produced badly or bad songs produced well.

Every now and again though I get something that has both good songs and that has been professionally produced. This is one of those few.

Lets not get carried away though as there are a few drawbacks here. The album is a bit on the short side having only 8 tracks. Not a massive problem. It does leave you wanting more which I suppose has it’s advantages. Another little problem seems to be with having a couple of tracks produced in entirely different ways. Not a big problem in the modern age of mp3 players but it’s a noticeable switch when you’re enjoying the entire album.

I do love the album though and my favourite tracks offer compass point variation. My top 4 are Memory Lane, a really cool foray into full colour, 1960’s pop. Refreshingly familiar and one to put a smile on your face and that bass cuts through with enough power and subtlety. Caviar is a well balanced blend of driving riffs and mental lyrics. It has the hall marks of early Radiohead with it’s painted-pictures surrealism. Don’t Know Who You Think You Are is simple, hard and fast. It’s also the song that most suffers from it’s different production. It’s a bit high-end for the rest of the album, but as a stand alone track it’s high energy and hard hitting pure punk. My last of the ‘top four’ is Blissful Ignorance. A track that builds up from a single guitar strum all the way up to euphoric full band mode. A track you can really get lost in.

The rest of the album doesn’t slip by unnoticed and Lonely Old Soul is such a great track. I can see this one becoming a favourite on stage. Walk On Water is a gritty post punk affair with great vocals and drums that will have my neighbours banging the walls and banging on the door with a four pack in equal measures. She Gave Me The Letter is another surreal jump back in time. One where the nights never end. It has a lovely Kinks-style English quaintness.

The album finishes on Headrush. A song that is taken right out of the guitar players handbook. It will have budding guitar players imitating this all over. Easy chords that pack a punch are the mainstay of RocknRoll. That’s a good one to end on.

Review by HeavyPetal

Watch a few Higharts videos: