I’ve read a lot of pre-press on this album, with reviewers slagging The Starting Line‘s first album, suggetsing it was a naive pop-punk record with no substance. Maybe I’m in the minority then, but I genuinely liked it a lot, and still listen to it, even if it was massively over-produced. Kenny Vasoli’s youthful exuberance provided energy in abundance, creating a set of songs that were recreated well, to an extent, in a live setting. I was looking forward to this release because I half expected more of the same, but after seeing the, let’s face it, terrible artwork for the first time, I began to have reservations.
‘Based On A True Story’ sounds like a different band. Kenny’s distinctive vocals are still present and correct, but the songwriting is far more mature. there are even strings in ‘Photography’, one of the most lauded tracks by those who have had pre-release review copies. For the most part, I feel this is a record that fails to hit the spot. At times, such as ‘Autobiography’, the band build on the platform they built first time round, showcasing a stronger all-round sound with diverting too much attention from the band they created. However, these moments are few and far between, and often the band opt to have longer, more drawn out songs that fail to set my world alight. They lack pace and urgency, styles which, for me, set the standard on the last album. At times it appears the band pay too much attention to the song structures and less time on making the listener sing along.
The first half dozen songs aren’t too bad – sickly sweet, yes, bad, no – but they do tend to wash over without standing out too much. ‘Bedroom Talk’ and ‘Surprise Surprise’ are decent songs, but they’re far from great. They don’t drive me like some of the older songs do. And perhaps that’s the problem – maybe I’m holding on to a band that’s grown up and wants to tackle a more mature sound? Maybe I’m clinging on to memories of youth and failing to let go a band that desperately wants to break the shackles of youth? Songs like ‘Artistic Licence’, for example, are far removed from the band of old. Fair play to the band for having a go at musical progression, but for me it doesn’t hit the spot as much as I had hoped it would. If this CD is based on a true story, it doesn’t have an entirely happy ending.
www.thestartingline.com
Geffen/Drive Thru
paul