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.