Written by: Jayme Stewart
Highwind, an alternative band from New Jersey, dropped their debut EP earlier this year, titled ‘How’ve You Been?’ This EP features five songs, totaling around 18 minutes. According to the bands twitter, they are looking to deliver music with a message. They are promoting being ‘open and honest with yourself and others’ according to their twitter- and the EP showed just that.It starts off with the song ‘Wednesday, 2 o’clock’, which is a hard hitting (while still being soft) song that pushes this idea of being open with yourself and others. The instrumentals are solid, and the lyrics do well to convey the meaning they are going for- listening to it feeling like a bit of a journey.The songs following further the journey, Look Alive in particular standing out. This song talks about many of the struggles that people deal with in the world of social media and the pressures put on people. While listening, it is easy to feel the emotion in the song and the lyrics deliver an impactful message.Bi-Polar is the next song, and it too follows along with the same message. It is impressive that they are able to not only make songs that sound good, but they are also able to make them have a deeper meaning. The music has passion in it, layers of emotion building on top of each other as the EP goes along. The fourth song on the EP is Synchronicity, which is another standout from it. The vocals and instrumental work well together, and the lyrics are heavy hitting as well. This song touches on topics that are shown throughout the EP, and it goes to show how impressive it is for them to tie the same ideas throughout the EP in five unique songs. The last song on the EP is Afterlife (How’ve You Been?), which is a great song to end the EP on. The delivery of the song is great, and the slight bits of rougher vocals really makes the song stand out while listening. The song is another emotional one, ending the emotional story Highwind was telling throughout the EP. The EP feels like a story, which is something that some bands can not portray as well as Highwind managed to do. They had a message, and they stuck to it. The songs are all packed full of meaning, which can be very important to some listeners. Listening to the EP is an experience that can only be described as transportive. It feels incredibly important and leaves listeners wondering- if this was the first EP, what’s next? Overall, Highwind’s debut EP is wonderful. It delivers heavy hitting emotional songs with good vocals, and well thought out lyrics. The instrumentals are solid throughout the EP, something that some EPs are definitely lacking, and it is overall very impressive. It is everything that a band should hope to have in their debut EP, and listeners should watch out for what the band will do next.
Check out Highwind on Spotify and Apple Music! https://open.spotify.com/album/2WPgRpCynadcqGO2qK4rmC?si=NqBeGwryQWqnq3cZLAI-Sghttps://music.apple.com/us/artist/highwind/888843523