Hightower - The Rich Bitch Sessions

We have just about reached the halfway point of 2014, and what a year it has been. Personally and professionally it has just been crazy from top to bottom. One of the many brilliant things about the year so far has been the amount of truly awesome gigs that I have the pleasure to attend. One of said awesome gigs was Hightower Live @ The Actress And Bishop. The band had had a few beers and the audience had had a few more, the atmosphere was insane. I went into the gig pretty much blind but I came out a fan.

Anyway, I am telling you this misty eyed tale because the aforementioned Hightower have released to the world a new project they are calling ‘The Rich Bitch Sessions.’ Each of the first 4 tracks featured have been part of the bands live set for a while now but this is the first time that they have been brought together properly and recorded.

Track 1 is the glorious slice of classic Brit-pop that is ‘Born On A Star.’ The bassey intro builds the track nicely, with the main melody being strangely reminiscent of the Stooges classic ‘I Wanna Be Your Dog.’ This is one of my favourite tracks from the band full stop because I think it really has everything. The chorus has a serious anthemic quality to it while the sumptuous tone of the guitar gives the track the old school feel of early Oasis.

The tempo and rocky edge fade away for ‘Mind Away’ as they band slide into what has the feel of a real ‘happy go lucky’ indie tune. (I hope everyone gets what I mean! Can’t think of a better way to sum it up) The natural exuberance that is so prevalent in the opener has been reined in a few notches here making the track very easy listening.

‘Revolution’ is more of a straight rock track, featuring another sterling chorus and nice guitar work. The solo has a great old school rock n roll feel to it, which compliments the rest of the song nicely. This track is one of the highlights of their live set to I was pleased to see that it has finally been recorded. Ooooooossssssssssssshhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!! (You’ll understand when you hear the track)

The final track of the demo is ‘21 Reasons (Everything’s In Its Place)’ Again there is a bit of an indie feel to this one, with the track probably having more in common with some of stuff from The Strokes. The little guitar melody that runs all the way through the track will get stuck in your head and this combined with the slick drum beat means that the song really skips along. There’s nothing not to like.

And that’s exactly what the ‘Rich Bitch Sessions’ is, it’s all very likeable. There are no illusions of grandeur, not a whiff of pretentiousness, just a band that knows what they are good at and doing it very well. For my money you can’t ask for more than that.