The Ending Is Just The Beginning Repeating

Author: Alex Watts

The Living End has always been a guilty pleasure – something sitting perhaps too-often-played in your library, showing up with disturbing frequency in shuffles, making it onto mix tapes now and then. You wouldn’t tell your friends that you bought it, but you did.

Now they’re back, sneaking into your radio-listening somewhat insidiously. The Ending Is Just The Beginning Repeating, aside from having a deceptively pretentious title, is a solid album. It’s a sparkling representation of what the almost-alternative section of Australian music can do, when they’re not “crafting” bogan-prog.

There’s not a lot of downtime – the title track is an anthemic rock piece, ideal for road trips or that awkward walk home after you split up with your girlfriend. Similarly emotionally wrought are Resist and For Another Day, sprinkled amongst the more laidback (but undeniably rock-heavy) tracks like Universe and Ride The Wave Boy.

Snide remarks aside, this is a good album. The songs have a certain tangibility often missing from Australian pop/rock. There’s a dash of punk, those all-important anthems and just enough lyrical diversity to keep interest across the entire record. The moments when you find yourself singing along are only mildly embarrassing.

The Ending Is Just The Beginning Repeating isn’t the best album you’ll buy this year, but it’s a lot better than most. Groundbreaking? No. Thrillingly inspiring? Perhaps not. Worth a spin? Definitely.