Punk Rock Review

The Roman Line – Morning Portraits (Merman Records) – This album is like a big delicious pack of Starburst. There’s a little sweetness, a little sourness, and packed with variety. Like in a pack of Starburst, the variety is all within the realm of waxy fruit flavor.  This album is packed with variety all in the realm of powerful pop punk goodness. Morning Portraits is a 12 pack of emotional memories & drunken nights. As far as production goes, I wish most other albums I hear could sound as perfectly clear & crisp as this one. Musically The Roman Line have a similarity to a combination of early Dropkick Murphy’s (minus the bagpipes), Against Me!, & Social Distortion.  You can hear every note from each instrument and word sung. Really, Pod’s voice is actually almost too good for a punk singer, almost. I think that his voice sounds like a combination of Mike Ness (Social Distortion), Al Barr (Dropkick Murphys) & Bob Mould (Husker Du & Sugar) . Say what you will about those bands, the listed singers all have very good voices and Pod‘s voice brings a combination of all the good qualities from each. Putting that voice with the brilliant song writing of this album “Morning Portraits” is an easy top 5 album of 2009. Some of the songs that I can’t stop listening to are; “Jimmy” (My favorite of the bunch), “Talbot & Inkerman”, & “Dawn after the Wreck” to name a few. The only song that I don’t like is “Worst Case Ontario” and that’s not to say it’s a badly done song, just a little too country twang hobo-core for my liking (but I believe that was the intended style). *** Named the #2 album of the year by PunkRockReview.org for 2009 ***