If R.E.M. hadn't already blazed the trail years ago, Vertical Horizon's Everything You Want would be a seminal album, with its earnest harmonies, fluid melodies, and jangly guitars. And while Vertical Horizon may not have taken many forks off the road to Athens, they have whipped up an excellent pop-rock meld out of the purloined elements. Beginning with the ardent and anthemic "We Are," the pop band who began life on Georgetown's central campus nearly a decade before this major-label debut was released unleashes a personal diary of loss, love, and angst. The band, led by school chums Matthew Scannell and Keith Kane, find they just can't leave their pedagogical leanings behind. Only this time their investigations are into the mysteries of the human heart rather than Zeno's famous paradoxes. But the real paradox here is how a band so derivative can have made such a credible album. This time familiarity doesn't breed contempt. "You're a God," an edgy lament about putting someone on a pedestal, could have been lifted right out of the Alanis songbook, but it still manages to shimmer on its own merit, as do most of the 11 songs. --Jaan Uhelszki
