The Starting Line – Direction

I often browse through absolutepunk for updates on punk or indie artists. I really love their reviews section. After browsing through, I set about finding the albums online. One of these bands turned out to be The Starting Line. I knew of this band beforehand, but never really was a huge fan. In fact, I had listened to their major label debut (Based on a True Story) a few times and wasn’t much compelled.

However, based on this newest positive review, I gave their latest album (Direction) a listen. I was hooked immediately. It caught me off guard with all its catchiness. The songs have a poppy or even sing-along feel. Everything feels heartfelt too. As if you can relate to what vocalist (Kenny Vasoli) is really going through. But beyond all of this – it feels like summer music. For me, summer music is something that you can blast from your car stereo with the sun shining down – and feel great. Direction easily accomplishes this.

Most of the songs are about love and relationships and though that can be superficial – it’s nice to have carefree listening from time to time. Now, there are a few tracks that bog down the disc but there are also enough gems to keep me coming back for more…and more. The title track “Direction” kicks things off right and is later followed by my favourite track on the album “Are You Alone.”

As I was sifting through Wikipedia, I found that The Starting Line have decided to call it quits after this LP. I’m a tad disappointed to say the least. It frustrates me when bands finally reach their peak (at least in my opinion) only to disband shortly over. Regardless, we have this jewel to savour for a bit. This disc may not be anything too groundbreaking but - for me - it’s gonna be banging from my speakers this coming summer.

I’ll leave you with a little snippet from an interview with Kenny regarding Direction:

The album reflects Starting Line's personal and musical evolution during its turbulent last few years."Just about every song is about finding direction in music and in life," said Vasoli, adding that real-life issues are the inspiration for his lyrics."I always try to think about what's going on in my life, what's been troubling me, what makes me happy, and then I try to put it in a way where people can interpret it in their own way," he said.

The Starting Line official site

The Starting Line MySpace page