27 Miles Under Water

Back in January I had started a new job and wasn't overly happy in it. I had a 20 minute walk at the start and end of each day and I spent most of that time for a couple of weeks listening to the second Higher Power album, '27 Miles Under Water'. From the first listen, I couldn't get enough of it. The 90s was my era, and I still love a lot of bands and records from that time. I mean, who doesn't? There are now so many 'classics' from the 90s that it's not at all surprising that a modern day band would want to write a record paying homage to the decade. But that's what Higher Power have done with this record.

I took ages to buy this record considering I was all over it in January. At some point I ordered the most limited pressing of this from the Roadrunner US store. After about a month of waiting I realised that the status of my order hadn't changed, so I emailed to be told that they were waiting for the item to be 'restocked'. I had to then ask what exactly that meant. If there was a limited colour and it was sold out, how on earth was it going to get restocked? Well, the answer came back that it wasn't, so they asked if I wanted a different version or a refund, and I opted for the refund, not wanting to give these dipshits my money. The last week I was listening to it again and realised I still wanted a copy, so I grabbed the more common colour from the Roadrunner UK store instead.

I'm actually glad that I didn't get the rare colour for this. Having seen a pic on discogs, it looks like space vomit. Whereas this colour here is pretty rad. It's always cool when you get a record on a colour which is uncommon. I don't think I own another record this colour or particularly close to it.

I'm sure that if I buy enough releases to do a Top 10 of new releases for the year, this wwill be right up there. It'll also be interesting to see where the band goes in future after this. They've definitely moved on from 'hardcore' to a more 'alternative' place. It wouldn't surprise me if they end up becoming a mainstream rock band like Foo Fighters in a few years.