English noise-slinger upstarts HIGHDRIVE are billed as a band that first formed over a shared love of Deftones, The Jesus and Mary Chain and DIIV, and that’s usually a sonic compass that leads us to where we wanna be, regardless of past engagements. The Brighton fivesome sassed up our November V List roundup with a fevered bout called “Cherry,” and this week return to our pink-ink’d pages with “Passing By,” a hyper-charged dose of modern alternative that ricochets its sound across a sky-gazing house-of-mirrors. The volatile track traces the messy fallout of a relationship, but has enough comfort in its expanse of resonance to provide a safer landing than anticipated. “‘Passing By’ is a song about grief, focusing on remembering the bad things and the reasons why the relationship ended in the first place, rather than looking back through rose-tinted glasses,” the band declares. Sneer at sentimental nostalgia and get lost in the noise of now below.
Photo Credit: Derek Bremner