The Starting Line
Direction
3.9/5

Who It’s For: Warped Tour fans – not old school Warped Tour, nowadays kind of emo-ish Warped
Sounds Like: Pop punk with an underlying acoustic-y feel

Direction starts off strong, like seriously strong with a title track that is surprising. It’s got huge energy and is one of the best pop punk tracks that have come out this year. From there The Starting Line show that they can be catchy and even memorable, but they lose the fantastic momentum that they start with. Direction is a grow on you disc, as you know the words to more of the songs you will fall deeper in love with it, but that doesn’t count as achieving greatness. Tracks like “Way With Words” and “21” are bouncy and definitely have something. They are sure to be live hits as anyone can catch on to the lyrics quickly. Many of the other songs are equally as good, but just don’t stand out. This band is known for doing a lot of acoustic work and many of these tracks would work much better in that environment without the expectation of ‘make-me-wanna-move’ hooks and rhythms.

Track Listing:

1. Direction
2. 21
3. Are You Alone
4. Island
5. Hurry
6. Something Left To Give
7. Birds
8. Way With Words
9. I Could Be Wrong
10. Somebody's Gonna Miss Us
11. Need To Love
12. What You Want

- Steph Joudrey  Posted Aug. 25/07