The Starting Line Band • Page 31

I think Bedroom Talk is probably the worst Starting Line song and really brings down the album for me. I skip it every time.

 

I said what I said.

Bedroom Talk is way over talked about because of a line in the chorus. Rest of the song is a banger.

 

'tis pure cringe

 

This does deserved to be compared to each other

One gets praised WAY too much and the other gets shit on.

 

I mean, I adore both songs, but “I’m gonna tear your ass up like we just got married” is not really comparable to that Fall Out Boy verse. One paints a picture, the other swings a sledgehammer, haha

 

One is about being creepy/stalker-y and the other is about a monogamous relationship.

Also in 2005 context it's really not that abrasive.

 

I mean they're both cringe lyrics, so what? I don't understand what the point is of bringing up Fall Out Boy right now lol nobody was comparing those two songs.

 

Either way it doesn't matter because the point is that Autography absolutely slaps

 

Yeah I’m down for that track

 

Autography might be my favourite song on BOATS but Bedroom Talk is great too

 

Both (essentially) sophomore albums were released a week apart from each other. Both expanded musically from their previous pop-punk album.

 

I will say I do not like either lyrics but both bands were supposed to break in 05 and TSL didn't. I will say you can barely tell what Patrick is even singing, so it may not of even mattered.

 

Ok, but so what? I just don't see what a cringe FOB lyric has to do with a cringe TSL lyric lol. That's not what anyone was talking about.

 

Bedroom Talk is a banger, baby

 

I mean the line is clunky but the song is quintessential TSL

 

They actually talk about this in their documentary how the label really wanted them to use Neal Avron to produce BOATS, but they went with someone else. FOB ended up using Avron for FUTCT and that album blew them the hell up.
That was a huge turning point. Up until then TSL was more popular than FOB, or at least equal. A week before both albums dropped I saw them both at Bamboozle and TSL headlined. Fast forward one year and FOB was doing arenas and TSL went from 4k rooms to 1k rooms.

 

I think that beyond the line, the issue a lot of people have with it is how formulaic and overly sugary it is on an album that makes a habit of criticizing life in the music industry. But yeah idgaf it’s a great track, super catchy and that bridge is perfect

 

Such a bummer to see Tom talk about that, hah. The bitterness is just written all over his face. You could tell he’d really been holding onto it

 

It was an odd time being a fan of the band back when BOATS and Direction both came out. It felt like they should have been way bigger than they were, and it was clear even back then that they were really frustrated with their trajectory.

I even remember one time they were on TV (probably right after this album) and were talking about Yellowcard, joking about how the two used to be at a very similar level until Yellowcard exploded. The weird thing is that YC had basically already peaked in popularity at that point as well and went through similar frustration.

 

I hate to see how their labels treated them and screwed with their career, but on the flip side I feel like they played a part in it themselves too. They found massive success with their first album, catering to a music scene that was absolutely blowing up. And then for their next two records they kinda abandoned that sound to do what they wanted. I fully support their artistic integrity (and I love BOATS and Direction), but they had to have realized that some of those initial fans were gonna lose interest.
It was a risk that I kind of wish they waited until their 3rd album to do.

 

Going back to the FOB comparison... I feel like the leap they made from TTTYG to FUCT is pretty analogous to the leap this band made from SILYMI to BOATS. Both follow-up albums had some songs going in a weirder/more artistic direction, but they also both had some songs that were straight up hits. If TSL had pushed “The World” or “Stay Where I Can See You” as promotional singles, their trajectory might’ve been different.

“Bedroom Talk” might’ve actually worked as a single if it had been preceded by one or two more traditional singles from the album... but as the first and only single, it was a big ask.

 

You throw almost any uptempo song from BOATS under Crush/FBR and TSL could have blown up (willingly they play along with TV/radio).

 

It's hard to say what they should have or shouldn't have done, but overall I agree. BOATS didn't stick to what they were known for (upbeat pop punk) and it also didn't follow the current trends of the time (screamo?) I feel like a lot of bands with that sort of style had that problem around 2005. They all made some GREAT albums, but they didn't get the recognition everyone thought they would following the momentum of those pop punk records.

 

I was a conservative minded kid (not politically) and though being a big starting line fan I heard bedroom talk and was pretty much done listening. Now, I could care less but I do think it did some damage to the edge-type kids in the scene at the time. I love the album now.

 

Thank you!

I would love to hear a discussion between the bands that were upstreamed from Drive Thru to Geffen and hear them discuss how they all felt about it with hindsight.