365 project:"tell me what you thought about when you were gone and so alone. the worst is over, you can have the best of me."

72.

artist:the starting line
album:say it like you mean it

one of the really awesome things about this project is that while sometimes I'm stuck for an album to listen to, most of the time, the albums choose me. its been very interesting to see what my subconscious decides that i need to hear and how that plays out.

for a few weeks now my life has been very hectic, which in turn meant little time for making phone calls. i realized quickly that no one was calling me either, and that put the thought in my head "phones work both ways" which almost immediately morphed into "fate works both ways" which is a lyric from a goodnight's sleep. I decided at that point that it was time to listen to a starting line album...i had been trying to wait until it got warmer because the starting line equals summer to me, but i guess mid-sixties is warm enough.

i was going to listen to this CD a few days ago, but when i grabbed the case, it was empty. I have Cd's all over the place, so i figured it would turn up, that it was likely in the stack of Cd's that i pulled out of my old car that haven't found their homes yet, or that it was in the CD book that i have in my current car. Neither of these was the case, so i set out on a mission to find this elusive disk.

Ive been looking for it everywhere and have no idea where its gotten to. I'm sure that it is stuffed away inside another CD case, but I'm not going to sit down and go through 500+ Cd's to find it (though maybe this is a sign that its time i start putting stuff away...) so i did what any person in this day and age would do, and used an alternative method of retrieving the album.

after getting it situated, i left to drive up to my brother and sister-in-law's which is about a half-hour from home. this is actually just about the right amount of time i need to get through a standard pop-punk album so i was good to go. as i was driving away from my house, the opening lines to "up and go" made me smile. This album came out right before my senior year of college, and it was definitely a favorite during that year. I used to listen to it nearly non-stop, and it became kind of the anthem for the 6 block drive to school on the nights that my roommate Danny and I would drive in together.

I cant remember what got me started on the starting line. i don't remember if it was by way of a suggestion from someone else, or if id seen them perform and fallen in love. it might have even been due to chatter on absolutepunk. i really truly don't remember.

At any rate, its been a favorite of mine since day one, and that is why i cant find it now. it is one of those disks that i always want to take with me on long drives or listen to on a nice day or just have the need for on occasion, which makes it easy for me to misplace. I know that ill find it soon enough now that i have another copy, but that's okay by me. i have like four burned copies of deja entendu because i kept losing my original, and at this point its so scratched up it doesn't really play anyway. I'm sure the same could be said about say it like you mean it.

yes, this is my favorite starting line album. as the year goes on, ill get to the other ones, but this one is definitely my favorite. i had the pleasure of seeing the starting line's reunion show after their hiatus, and the songs from this album were the ones that i was most excited to hear. they are the ones that play on repeat in my head. there's actually a very good chance that this album ranks in my top ten ever, but that's so hard for me to really decide. its definitely up there, though.

if, for some reason, you have never taken the time to check out the starting line, now is the time to do it. the weather is getting warmer finally and i contend that this album is best listened to on full blast with the windows down and the wind in your hair. try to convince me otherwise.