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More than three years after releasing their self-titled debut, the Trampolines return with Between the Lines, a solid album that finds the band completely reinvigorated. The seamless vocals of Chris Stakes and Mark Sundermeier again take center stage, but this time around, the Tramps inject a little more jangle into their acoustic-driven sound and deliver a taut batch of alt-pop tunes that wouldn’t sound out of place next to such ’90s mainstays as the Gin Blossoms and Del Amitri. Although a few cuts are weighed down by tedious intros — the synth at the beginning of “Turning Around” could belong to the theme song of some crappy Reagan-era doctor drama, and the muddy guitar tone at the start of “Mistake” is cringe-worthy — overall the material here, particularly the countrified rocker “Passion in the Ashes,” is notably stronger than that of their freshman release.
