“Finding Me” by Vertical Horizon, Thursday, February 2, 2023
I’ve definitely talked about my love for the music of the late ‘90s. The often anodyne lyrics (Third Eye Blind being a notable exception) of the pop-rock groups around the turn of the millennium are arguably forgettable. Ballads pining for lost loves, songs of devotion and admiration, mild “We’re Not Gonna Take It” in a much less rebellious tone all graced the radio with a few edgy “Bitch”es and “Semi-Charmed Life”s. The last generation of radio listeners heard the tones of an acoustic guitar with electric lead embedding sometimes gravelly vocals but more and more men with higher voices than the grunge/post-grunge movement performed in a major key opposed to the minor keys of the grunge and hair metal movements proceeding the millennial pop-rockers. That was the context for Vertical Horizon’s breakthrough, Everything You Want.
I DON’T THINK YOU NOTICE. Lead vocalist Matt Scannell and guitarist Keith Kane started Vertical Horizon in 1991 while they were students at Georgetown. After releasing two independent albums the band signed to RCA and released their massive album Everything You Want. The title track, the album’s second single, topped the Hot 100 and the album spawned two singles after “Everything You Want.” But Vertical Horizon was a kind of one-album wonder. Their follow-up, Go, was under-promoted; the lead single "I'm Still Here" only receiving promotion on Adult Pop stations. The band continued though and even released an album as late as 2018. My personal experience with Vertical Horizon, like most music listeners, goes back to the hits. In my case it was a hotel room on a 4-H trip watching music videos on VH-1, something forbidden in my house at the time. The video for “Everything You Want” was on, and my only memory of the song was the quote: “every six seconds you think about sex,” which I probably reacted obnoxiously in a room full of boys whom I barely knew. I certainly heard the other singles on the radio when I started listening to the radio a few years after the band’s peak, though I don’t remember hearing their final single from the record, “Best I Ever Had” (Grey Sky Morning). I first heard a cover of that song in 2005 when country singer Gary Allan released the single from his album Tough All Over.
‘CAUSE I LIKE SOME SUFFERING. I found a copy of Everything You Want in an under- $10 bin at Sam Goody and because I liked so many of the songs I bought it. The rest of the songs on the record were good, but nothing was spectacular, warranting regular rotation in my car during my junior or senior year. However, today’s song, “Finding Me,” was a highlight from the album, and I felt it stands with the singles of the record. The song shows off lead singer Matt Scannell’s upper range and the lyrics and self-reflective lyrics resonated with a high school junior wondering what his life would hold. It’s that vein that makes “Finding Me” my song of the day. While I haven’t been writing much since I’ve been home, I’ve been having conversations with family members and high school friends about some pretty emotional stuff. It’s so interesting how much I missed in certain situations or how much I didn’t know about a friend or family member. It’s also interesting to hear the opinion of an outsider—a partner of a friend or family member who didn’t live through an experience—and how that outside perspective could be a key to a deeper understanding. I know that one of my biggest flaws, especially when it comes to writing and just living, is getting outside of my own head. I have a cognitive realization that different people are motivated by different things, and they have different preferences. But it’s hard for me to emotionally get there. Too often I revert to the things that I want; I talk about myself when I should listen to others. I’m obsessed with finding me, that I fail to listen to you. But I hope that admitting the problem will lead to shedding some of this narcissism.
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