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Bottom Line

Eloquence (2005)
Nice Guy Records

Reviewer Rating:

Contributed by: Anchors
(others by this writer | submit your own)

Published on May 31st 2005

Do you remember being fourteen? Your parents took you everywhere that your mountain bike couldn't, Nintendo 64 was all the rage, and New Found Glory was playing the soundtrack to your life. Like most of their contemporaries, pop-punk band Bottom Line exhibits a strong sense of melody and a complete lack of character. They're competent musicians, but that never really transpires to anything of merit.

Hailing from Cincinnati, Bottom line have dropped 12 songs worth of Eloquence on the world, but is it really in anyone's best interests to listen to what they have to say? You've been here before: Sugar-sweet melodies, power chords abound, and lyrics about post-adolescent relationships. Guitarists Benjamin James and Dan Kinzie trade back and forth their vocal duties, and create some solid harmonies, but their frequently nasal inflections make going through the entire album more of a chore than it really should be. "This Far From A Fire" provides for one of the album's best choruses, a really bouncy track that also showcases some solid riffs that even if only momentarily deviate from the repeated power chords. Had the entire album sounded like this, I might be more apt to compliment it, but too many of the other songs fall flat. The other exception to this seems to be the album's closer, "Autographs," which also is a really strong vocal and musical showing.

The band does musically change things up on a few instrumental tracks, including "Saddle Oxford" and "Mystique." It feels like the former is placing you in the middle of a speakeasy in the 1920's, while the latter is a short but engaging trip into an ambient soundscape. Had they expanded on either of those just a little bit more, the record as a whole might not sound quite so derivative and just overall lackluster. As one would expect from an album of this sort, the lyrics don't add anything where the rest of the music falters. Though they're not bad enough to really detract all that much either.

Eloquence is a decent attempt at a pop-punk album, but there's still not enough there for a truly solid experience. Bits and pieces of guitar playing, and bits and pieces of the vocals sound great, but that can't be kept up for the entire duration and the album suffers because of it. Pass for now.

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Anonymous (June 2, 2005)

hell yeahs chrono trigger and ff3. and did anyone play soul blazer? best ever.

-duped

exploitedyouth (June 2, 2005)

"only played secret of mana and final fantasy 3 on snes ever"
Holy shit Secret of Mana was my life for one summer i didn't think many people played that game.

~exploitedyouth~

Anonymous (June 1, 2005)

Talk about old, I was 14 in 1989! It was all DK, Minor Threat and Black Flag. 13 Songs was released that year.
I must now retire from reading this site. Naaah.

CherryColaRain (June 1, 2005)

Wooo well...my childhood revolves around my SNES...that console never stops kickin ass..i still play it! as for this band...they could do much better but as far as pop punk goes its not too bad...but im no fan of pop punk so wat do i know. anyways good review

johnnydanger (June 1, 2005)

Bottom Line the hardcore band is much better

Anchors (June 1, 2005)

Maximum Carnage was awesome.

I just downloaded that yesterday, and I can't beat the first level. I'm blaming it on having to use the keyboard.

Inspection12e (June 1, 2005)

Bottom Line: this sucks

When i was 14 it was all about: X-men(forgot the full title but you could play as Psylocke), SNES zelda, Turtles In Time, SNES Castlevania, Mario Kart, Spider-man/X-men(tough as nails), Maximum Carnage etc.

Anonymous (May 31, 2005)

14.....Green Day, AFI and Super Nintendo were my life. Genesis had a couple good games....Kid Chameleon rocked, the Shining Force series was good, Sonic 2 and Sonic and Knuckles were also good, not to mention the king of all action games, motherfucking GUNSTAR HEREOS!!

but...

you cant beat the SNES. Super Metroid, Chrono Trigger, FF3 (or 6 for you purists), Mario World, Mario Kart, Yoshis Island, Act Raiser, Soulblazer, Super Mario RPG, Super Godzilla, Starfox, Super Punch-out!! and so many many more....I gotta go dig that thing out of the closet.

I go to college to make video games by the way, so I guess that explains something about my pasison for this subject :)

-!GreenVandal!

Anonymous (May 31, 2005)

iheartadam (May 31, 2005)

I was covered in Moon Ska mail order when I was 14.

joeg (May 31, 2005)

when i was 14, green day and offspring were breaking out. ha i'm old.

psychoos231 (May 31, 2005)

Oh yeah music...uh When i was 14 i listened to bands like Tiger Army, Rancid, Bouncing Souls. etc and 6 years later and i'm still into them.. but games.. It was all about the games. Oh yeah, arcades were still alive and well back then now they're nowhere to be found...sad

Anchors (May 31, 2005)

So I downloaded a Mortal Kombat II ROM for my SNES emulator, and I'm getting my ass owned. Raiden used to be untouchable. Fuck Sub-Zero, and his stupid ice hands.

stevejonestherealbones (May 31, 2005)

oh wait...it was Kid Chameleon

it was rad, sooooo many levels, so much to do..you werent a chameleon, but a kid that put on diff helmets and turned into different animals...it was awesome, but i dont think it was too popular

- jones

Anchors (May 31, 2005)

The only chameleon game I remeber was for Playstation, Gex I think. No no wait, Gex was a Gecko.

Anyone remember Croc, for Playstation? I never had the willpower to finish those games. Rascal, either, that game blew.

stevejonestherealbones (May 31, 2005)

sonic was pretty rad....and they had some chameleon game or something...this dude put on diff masks and got different powers...it was fuckin awesome....and also, mortal kombat fucked shit up.

i think it was kid chameleon....

and at 14 i was rocking Punk in Drublic and Answer that and Stay Fashionable and DFL's Proud to Be.... then i started listening to the gay poppy stuff a year or so later...

- jones the bones

- stevejones8770@yahoo.com

Anchors (May 31, 2005)

I was always pretty content with Sonic and Mortal Kombat on Genesis. Oh, and NHL '94, '95, and so on. Those ruled.

johnrambo (May 31, 2005)

i got my first skateboard on my 14th birthday (1996)... it was an ed templeton toy machine deck with a monster with its arm cut off for the graphic and independent trucks and red spitfire wheels. literally 30 decks and 5 sets of trucks later, i STILL have those wheels on my current skateboard. i listened to the suicide machines and pennywise pretty heavily, went to my first warped tour in 97, and my life exploded. thank the lord. i only played secret of mana and final fantasy 3 on snes ever.

Kenjamin (May 31, 2005)

I never got girls when I was 14 and couldn't relate to all the heartbreak in NFG. Mxpx was the soundtrack to my life.

Anonymous (May 31, 2005)

ya know, when most of the comments about the review are about what they were doing at the age of 14, rather than about the music itself, well, that doesn't bode well for the music...

bizzlebrizzle (May 31, 2005)

you gave this too high of a rating.

Anonymous (May 31, 2005)

Back when I was 14 I was listening to Green Day, Nofx, Pennywise, and playing SNES and Genesis. I guess things haven't changed much. - TahoeJeff

longshot (May 31, 2005)

When I was fourteen I rode my bike, played N64 and listened to a lot of 30footFALL. punk rock, mutha fucka...

psychoos231 (May 31, 2005)

fucking Street Fighter and King of Fighters..if a system had those then thats where i went.

Anonymous (May 31, 2005)

NES with the Megaman series. Booyah.

-Strewtho.

Anchors (May 31, 2005)

I was just the same as you. NES > Genesis > PS > and now PS2.

Seemed like everyone I knew though, rocked the 64, and were blowing their loads over Mario Kart. There was some wrestling game for 64 that ruled, No Mercy maybe? The royal rumble mode was key. I never really liked much else on the system though, PS had all the good franchises. Metal Gear Solid, Final Fantasy, Gran Turismo, EA Sports, Twisted Metal. Even that loveable Bandicoot.

What did 64 really have? Conkers bad fur day was pretty fun. Goldeneye, Perfect Dark, that was about it. Vive la playstation!

stevejonestherealbones (May 31, 2005)

i just cant relate to this review....i had the play station....and before that the genesis....but i did have the NES...wish i got the super nes instead of genesis though....my only childhood regret

- jones the bones

- stevejones8770@yahoo.com

Anonymous (May 31, 2005)

its funny because you're wrong

(the post below not the review)

Anonymous (May 31, 2005)

FIRST! (although the fact that I have nothing to say diminishes the glory) oh well... FIRST, MOTHERFUCKERS!

Anonymous (May 31, 2005)

When I was 14 I rode my BMX, played nes, and nofx was the soundtrack to my life.