Who loves love? The Starting Line does! They're young! They are in a band! Rock on!

Let me start off with the bad. The Starting Line are cheesy...ridiculously cheesy. "I've been sleeping with the lights on so if I wake in the night your picture is clearly in sight. So lets meet at the mouth for a kiss that's been so long overdue, no thanks to the two thousand miles and the touring we always do (it makes me miss you more)" Kenny sings to some lucky young lady. While he may be winning over that girl with those words, they make me want to roll my eyes into my brain. The second track, "Selective", is completely forgettable as well. Five of the six tracks are about loving some girl or a vast array of girls (in "Playing Favorites" he sings that he has only written two songs for a certain girl...well what are the other two love songs, huh Kenny?)

Far too many bands are doing the acoustic-with-power-chords thing and pretty much all of them suck at it. The Starting Line don't offer much new musically, but they pull off the acoustic schtick pretty well. The addition of Casio keyboard blips and drumbeats on "Make Yourself at Home" and "The Nightlife" give the EP a Minus The Bear kind of feel, as both tracks are the highlights of the CD. "Make Yourself At Home" is a sweet ode to mom and dad and despite the cheesiness of that topic, it is a welcome releif from pining over a girl (or two). Considering that everything currently being released on Drive-Thru that has nothing to do with the Rx Bandits wears on my patience like none other, this cd isn't that bad. In fact, as far as Drive Thru is concerned this cd is good (I bet absolutepunk ate this up).

So all in all, this CD sounds good when a Casio keyboard is involved and certainly isn't bad. "The Best of Me" is one of the most annoying pop-punk songs I've ever heard, but its better acoustic (not much better). While the Aquabats brag about being lovers of loving love, I think the Starting Line take the cake with their songs about all the girls they are in love with. Not bad.