At the poppier end of the pop-punk spectrum, A Coastline Ending aren’t pop enough to go mainstream in the same way as a band like Metro Station, nor are they catchy enough to dominate the pop-punk market in the way bands like The Starting Line or New Found Glory have. While there’s not too much wrong with the band their new record, while immaculately produced, is a little non-descript and bland. All too often the verses build nicely into the choruses but they’re not sweet enough to hit the spot – ‘Breakdown’, for instance, dominates until it reaches what should be a crescendo yet it never actually hits the spot. There’s a lot going on musically with synth and keys often playing major roles and when the band get it right, as they do on ‘Face The Music’, they sound great. There are, however, too many times when the synth seems to have been put in there for no real reason and it ends up getting lost. Not a bad band by any stretch of the imagination, but they’re no better than a lot of other bands doing very similar things right now.
