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IndigoEcho aren't short of attention at the moment. Having gotten their latest release stocked in HMV shops across their native Scotland and publicized its launch with a show in one of Edinburgh's biggest music outlets, they seem well poised to make the most of the next few months. The band have been toning up their musical muscles since their last release and have moved towards a Brit-rock sound in the vein of the Stereophonics or the rockier material from the latest Delirious? album. The wisdom of that transition only really becomes apparent when the band lets loose on the second half of the album, they are a little too restrained in places early on, the new direction suits the band well. Alongside their rockier tracks, IndigoEcho have slipped in a few laid back tracks that serve to illustrate the well-balanced engineering. While the lyrics are not quite strong enough to sustain too many ballads, the acoustic-driven material does carry the album well. There is a range of strong material on this album, but it takes a while to warm up. IndigoEcho might have been better served by a stronger opening. With more time to develop in their new identity, IndigoEcho should be another of Scotland's welcome contributions to the music scene. James Stewart 2/20/2000
"Take me higher, higher, higher with you..." cries the chorus of the opening track of this disc. This is what the album aims to do; take the listener along in a higher way; a way of deep thought and interesting guitar-based rock. By and large, it succeeds. The tunes are decently crafted, reminding the listener at times of Third Eye Blind, or the Gin Blossoms, and the lyrics are reasonable, sufficiently indirect to avoid triteness but with the Christian underpinnings that a person would expect. And this is its downfall; there's little surprising, exciting, or groundbreaking to this album. In fact, the mixing of a few songs put the vocals far enough in front of the music that they end up sounding detached, as though this is a solo singer in front of a generic backing band of which he has little pride. This clearly isn't the case, but the mix makes it sound that way. Fortunately, most songs on the album have a little more even balance to the mix. It's true that the vocals on an album need to be heard, but I'm sure that there is no need to push them so far out front, as on the first track, that there's nothing else that is emphasized. It's a fair album, but one that needs a little bit more to break out of the pack of guitar rock albums. Alex Klages 3/5/2000
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