Small actions can have massive consequences—a truth the butterfly effect has been trying to sell us for decades. Case in point: in April 2024, Taylor Swift released the single “The Black Dog,” where she sings about a former lover getting excited at a bar “when someone plays The Starting Line.” But his new flame doesn’t share that joy, because “she’s too young to know this song.” Just four months later, The Starting Line were back in the studio, working on their first new album in nearly 20 years.
Was it just an eerie coincidence that the world’s biggest popstar acknowledged the band in the lead up to their long-awaited fourth album? Or did the flap of Swift’s bejewelled butterfly wings blow the winds of change enough to set the wheels in motion? Honestly, it’s anyone’s guess, and the band will likely never confirm it either way. In any case, the elder emos of the world owe the megastar big time. She didn’t just remind Dickies-wearing millennials of what they thought about when they were young and so alone: She also introduced the perennially underrated band to a younger audience who missed them the first time around.
Eternal Youth, the follow-up to 2008’s Direction, arrives with the most eyes on the band since the MySpace era. After the ripple from Swift’s nod to them, the Philadelphia natives now have to create buzz on their own. And it’s entirely to their credit that they’ve done so in a way that honors their roots while proving they still deserve to exist as a band in the present.
The lead single, “Sense of Humor” charges out of the gates with precise, pummeling drums and an undercurrent of breathless guitar work. It’s hooky and melodically irresistible, though it may take a few spins for the track’s bittersweet undertone to sink in. “Try not to panic just yet,” exhales vocalist and bassist Kenny Vasoli. “It’s all part of the routine / Still feels demented, no less / What could they want from me?”
Across Eternal Youth, the now 41-year-old Vasoli wrestles with the weight of growing older in a genre that often expects you to stay forever young. On the methodically-paced rocker “Curveball,” he bemoans, “How was I supposed to know/It’d end up this way?” The propulsive pop-punk cut “Blame” captures his frustration perfectly, with Vasoli seething: “Physically, I’m all bent out of shape.” His growing anxieties—largely about aging and how others perceive him— never fully subside, even when the music briefly masks or contradicts them, adding crucial layers of narrative tension throughout.
“Circulate,” driven by Vasoli’s steely bass line and Tom Gryskewicz’s floor-tom wallop, takes the band to a desolate dancefloor gathering dust. The would-be movers and shakers “won’t put down their phones,” yet Vasoli’s abstract imagery of gathering movement through the night delivers one of his strongest hooks ever: “Slow burn / Billowing / Your turn / Meet me at the front.”
The album has plenty more where that came from. The big-swinging “I See How It Is” features a chorus on par with their heyday, bouncing like a Warped Tour moshpit. Meanwhile, “Granted” mirrors the economical lyricism of “Circulate,” making the lines even more emphatic and emotionally driven.
Will Yip produced Eternal Youth—think Jack Antonoff for people with sleeve tattoos. He’s the guy behind a slew of modern emo classics over the past decade. From working with bands like Tigers Jaw, Title Fight, and Turnover, he is well-equipped to bring The Starting Line into the 2020s.
The drums hit wide and hard in the mix, while Brian Schmutz’s keyboards add subtle warmth. Both Matt Watts and Mike Golla’s guitars weave between sparkle and sting, delivering exactly what each moment of the song demands.
Vasoli sits front and center with nowhere to hide—which works well, considering his voice has aged spectacularly. From the opening scream-sung line of “I See How It Is,” he sounds as assertive and engaged as ever, perhaps even more so now with years of experience under his belt. Eighteen years may have passed between Starting Line’s records, but Vasoli’s half-dozen solo albums as Vacationer have kept his voice seasoned. Some of the project’s more lush delivery seeps through in moments like “Defeating The Purpose + Pivot” and “Enjoyment,” adding a depth and maturity to the band’s return.
With the end in sight, “Benchmark” sprints to the finish line with a final burst of bristling, kinetic energy. As the band tumbles into a series of triplets, Vasoli offers a parting missive that seems to reflect on the entire 26-year history of the band”: “If I could do it all again / I would.” Just like the band did all those years ago, he says it like he means it. In fact, he tears the last of his vocal chords to convey the conviction. While most of the bands of their era have caved into cheap-pop nostalgia or imploded entirely, The Starting Line sound like they’re destined to keep doing this forever on Eternal Youth. And you can only hope they do.