There’s so much new music being released in the modern world, it’s become all too easy to miss the good stuff. This fact hasn’t escaped The Morning Line. Their 2026 release ‘Stars’ provides a handy recap of the best bits of the San Franciscan band’s catalogue, even stretching as far as including a couple of the year’s singles. It’s more than a standard compilation, though; for those who’ve been on board for a while, there’s still interest, since ‘Stars’ goes to the effort of remixing some of the previously released stuff to bring it up to scratch. With that in mind, and whichever way you look at it, ‘Stars’ has all the makings of a career defining disc, showcasing a superb blend of college rock, power pop and other retro sounds.
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THE MORNING LINE – 90s Pickup / This Lens
Across two enjoyable releases, ‘North’ (2019) and ‘Scene’ (2022), San Francisco’s The Morning Line celebrated a very 90s brand of pop rock, with an array of songs driven by jangling guitars and harmonious vocals. Often sounding like a cross between peak Connells and the lighter elements of Soul Asylum circa ‘Candy From A Stranger’, their best songs had the power to uplift, and in the case of ‘Looking Right At You’ and ‘Make Believe’ (very much highlights from ‘Scene’) even shared a nostalgic quality, despite being newly written.
THE MORNING LINE – Scene
The Morning Line’s 2019 LP, ‘North’, was an absolutely terrific album. Reawakening the sounds of ‘Girlfriend’ era Matthew Sweet, Soul Asylum’s best major label recordings and even a the productions of Sean Slade & Paul Q. Kolderie, it felt like a musical love letter to the 1990s. Retro, yet still somehow fresh, it’s melodic and jangly songs really captured the best of the band’s obvious talents.
Three years on, their first release for Justine Couvault’s Red On Red Records is another musical treat. A seven song collection, ‘Scene’ taps into the “mini album” format – something that seems to have been overlooked since the early 90s – which means there’s far less opportunity for the listener’s attention to wander, but still enough scope for a little variety along the way.
THE MORNING LINE – Yard Sale
Back in 2019, The Morning Line released their third album ‘North’. With its retro sound calling back to some of the 90s college rock greats, it was easy to draw parallels with the album’s best material and past classics by Buffalo Tom, Soul Asylum and Third Eye Blind. It became one of that year’s best DIY releases and gained praise from all seventeen people that actually heard it. A follow up single ‘Back On Earth’ appeared at the beginning of 2021, and although it showed off a more sedate side to the band with hints of ‘Behind The Sun’ era R.E.M. at its core, the same retro charms were more than present, cementing Stephen Smith’s reputation as a fine songwriter.
Real Gone’s End of Year Round-Up, 2019
It’s been a great year at Real Gone. Not only did the website celebrate its tenth birthday, but we got more requests and submissions for review than ever! This year, everything felt like it had truly come together and paved the way for the next phase of the website’s lifespan.
This year, Real Gone received hundreds upon hundreds of review items and digital streams. Obviously, there isn’t enough time to review everything…but from the mountain of stuff we got to listen to and review, there was a lot of great music.