Launched in 1991 as a folk-based acoustic duo, Vertical Horizon gradually molded itself into a slick pop/rock outfit, culminating in the band's brief (but significant) heyday at the turn of the 21st century. Matt Scannell and Keith Kane first performed together at Georgetown University, where the two undergraduates honed their harmonized vocals at parties and local coffeehouses. Shortly after graduation, they relocated to Boston to record a debut LP, 1992's There and Back Again, and returned to their native D.C. after the album's release. They later crossed paths with Jackopierce, another acoustic rock act, and the two groups soon launched a multi-week package tour that introduced Vertical Horizon to a wider audience.
Backup musicians were hired to fill out Vertical Horizon's evolving sound, and a tour alongside the Dave Matthews Band proved to be especially fortuitous, as drummer Carter Beauford -- a newfound fan of the band -- agreed to handle percussion duties on the sophomore effort Running on Ice. Bassist Sean Hurley and drummer Ed Toth were added to the lineup in 1996, thus making Vertical Horizon a permanent four-piece, and 1997's Live Stages captured the quartet's strength in concert. Such momentum wasn't lost on the major labels, and RCA ultimately offered the group a contract as the '90s drew to a close.
Vertical Horizon reissued its three previous LPs after signing with RCA, and the band's major-label debut, Everything You Want, followed in July 1999. The album went double platinum on the success of the title track (a number one hit) and three additional singles, and Vertical Horizon supported its release with a string of American and European tour dates. Although originally intending to issue a follow-up album in late 2002, the bandmates struggled with their representation at RCA, and ultimately left the label after Go's release in September 2003. A new contract was inked with Hybrid Recordings in 2005, but Toth left the band that same year, choosing to join the Doobie Brothers' touring lineup instead. The band continued to work on a new record in his absence, with famed Rush percussionist Neil Peart lending his help to several tracks. Burning the Days was ultimately released in 2009.
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.
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