The Roseline return with a bagful of melodies and a righteous ire.
Hailing from Lawrence, Kansas ‘Keystone of the Heart’ is The Roseline’s 8th album and as you’d expect from a band this far into their career it is a properly produced, musically proficient thing – full of heartland country Americana grooves. The title track is a wistful melancholy thing dappled with some lovely dual vocals and the album unfolds in a similarly tasteful way. Each track works to a clear ‘pop Americana’ template. It comes as no surprise that songs from their catalogue have been used on shows such as Netflix’s Virgin River. This album is not in the least bit edgy, despite lead singer and founder Colin Halliburton’s clearly decent, lyrical moral stance in the face of the modern world. Any lyrical sharpness is counterpointed by musical themes which are both whimsical and bright in every case. But…
There is a sense that this feels almost a bit by the numbers. Tracks ‘Hang ‘em High’ and ‘I was a Gun’ could do with more sharpness or bite. In themselves they are perfectly acceptable but we’ve heard them or songs that sound like this before. The former actually sounds very like a Pat Benatar track with a country flavour.
There’s much to like here but I suspect that there could have been more as Halliburton has clearly got views that are worth engaging with.
