The Starting Line – Eternal Youth

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18 years. There’s something a bit romantic about the amount of time that it took The Starting Line to follow up 2007’s brilliant LP of Direction. While turning 18 years old seems to signify our final path towards adulthood and leaving our youth behind, the reality behind this landmark age is that our lives are just beginning. Eternal Youth comes at just the right moment in time for our scene that is experiencing another surge and resurgence with bands like Motion City Soundtrack, Yellowcard, and now The Starting Line making new music again that is both worthy of their past legacy, while simultaneously moving the needle of creativity forward in their musical journey. The Starting Line first arrived in the pop-punk scene with Say It Like You Mean It, a widely adored scene staple via Drive-Thru Records, and yet it made sense for the band to outgrow that genre with stylistic choices made on Based on a True Story and eventually Direction. Eternal Youth signifies the band recognizing that the pop-punk genre is reminiscent of, as Kenny Vasoli put it in an interview I conducted with him in 2022: “I do know that we’re a pop punk band. And it’s a genre that sort of represents nostalgia and eternal youth, which I’m totally able to appreciate.” Wait, did Kenny drop the name of his returning LP for all the world to see and we all missed it until now? Eternal Youth to me represents the best version of The Starting Line, and I’m so happy that they’re back.

The first notes from Eternal Youth start off with a fairly simple riff from Mike Golla, while Matt Watts adds in some layered guitar parts, rounding with a cool bass line from Kenny Vasoli before adding, “Didn’t have to think twice / Came down to not second-guessing those hunches / Came to know when it’s right / Though I admit I have had all my moments / Never giving it up,” that acts a bit like a mantra for the entire record that fans of The Starting Line admittedly were a bit pessimistic of ever hearing. “I See How It Is” plays off well throughout Kenny’s great vocal performance on a song largely about getting back to the start of things and re-capturing that brush of nostalgia paired with a reason to make new music. Lead single of “Sense of Humor” makes perfect sense in the sequencing of Eternal Youth to place it here, and Kenny’s delivery of the chorus, “I’ll never be replaced / I know it in my heart / It’s got to be this strange / Evident from the start / Everything is absurd / Best just to laugh it off / Although a grain of salt / May not be quite enough anymore,” is crisp, and paired with solid and tight musicianship from the five-piece band that must’ve realized somewhere along the way of all their reunion shows that the “magic” was and is still there.

”Blame” begins with a stellar opening drumline from Tom Gryskiewicz, and the band kicks things into a new gear with an electric-charged song about figuring things out in the later stages of our own personal development. The hook finds Kenny pondering, “I know that I’ve been here before / And if it’s all the same / Then can anyone help? / Can anyone else? / There’s nobody else left here to blame.” The Starting Line has no trouble getting back to those warm feelings that came through the speakers on Direction, and that’s what makes Eternal Youth such a great return to form. It’s like the band never lost a step.

”Circulate” was the second single to be released from the Will Yip-produced set, and Kenny recognizes the sign of the times with the opening lyrics of, “Hey, no dancing to the DJ / They won’t put down their phones,” that ties back to the all too relatable experience of going to a concert these days where people forget to live in the moment. The Starting Line deliver their familiar frenetic energy on songs like this that pulsate along with a strong sense of urgency behind it. “Defeating the Purpose + Pivot” reminded me a lot of the style and choices made on Direction, specifically the song “Are You Alone,” and it plays out like a direct homage to this era of the band. Not ones to delve too much into the path covered before, The Starting Line instead blaze through this song and show off their musical chops on the energetic title track. Kenny recognizes mortality and looking for that glimmer of hope that we’re not as old as we all seem as he sings, “Yearning for eternal youth / Through and through / Searching for that fountain / Good intentions / Through and though.” It’s a relatable concept for me, as I’ve turned 42 this year and I feel every ounce of that age whenever I try to get back to the “good ol’ days.”

”Curveball” adds in a great guitar riff from Mike Golla that helps set the tone for a song filled with some nice atmospheric elements that allows for the band to give their audience a chance to breathe and vibe with the sound coming out of the speakers. The lyrics of, “How was I supposed to know? / It’d end up this way / How was I supposed to know? / Give my best /
All my love / Everyone who suffered loss,” recalls the feeling of despair during the pandemic and today’s political climate, while the band offers a youthful exuberance in their delivery of these heavily-weighted lyrics. “Granted” is a pretty straight-forward rocker that showcases just how far the band has come from the starry-eyed Say It Like You Mean It sound that seemed to be comfortable in paying direct homage to the pop-punk bands that were on the Drive-Thru Records roster at that time. What sets The Starting Line apart from say, New Found Glory, was their willingness to stray further and further away from that familiar pop-punk sound to styles based in indie rock and beyond. Kenny shares, “I can’t turn on the waterworks / Because they won’t turn off / Trying not to make the same mistakes / And be a better man than I was,” and looks back on his past with the steadfast dedication and commitment that he can be a better person.

”Enjoyment” lives up to its name, and is an ultra-enjoyable mid-tempo song about finding those little joys in our life that help us with re-focusing our mental health. Kenny’s hope of, “We want a life of enjoyment / With no more aggravation / At the end of the line,” is good advice to take in, and it’s a reminder for us to put our best selves forward daily to assist us with “cleansing” our own personal timelines. Kenny does some great stuff, vocally, in his overall approach to the song and I wish he’d lean even further into these types of performances on Eternal Youth. “Humility” finds Kenny and his bandmates once again looking to their past, as Kenny sings in the chorus, “Humility always seems to look good on me / What’s already all within was too hard to see.” The Starting Line rally around his every word and deliver a crisp rocker that hits its intended target and tone. The album closer of “Benchmark” opens with “I built a bench / Little place for you to rest / Left a space to stamp our names / Nothing getting in the way / Your own place to sit and breathe / Partially in the sun / Always half in the shade / Never too warm” is affectionately delivered by Kenny as he and his bandmates seem to be speaking directly to their fans who’ve stuck with them and their music over the lengthy 18 year hiatus.

Eternal Youth captures those feelings of nostalgia in ways that the band may not even realize today. Yet, with so much great new choices made in their musical approach, The Starting Line appear poised and ready for a late-career resurgence that is hopefully blessed with much more music in this same vein for years to come. Much like their popular cover of “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now,” it’s hard to not believe that this record is a key turning point in the band’s career that catapults them to even more notoriety than being name-dropped in a Taylor Swift song. They 100% deserve it.

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