Amber Pacific - The Possibility and the Promise (Deluxe Edition) (2008)

On the heels of their 2004 debut EP, Fading Days, the youthful Federal Way, WA-based emo-punk stalwarts in Amber Pacific return with a heightened presence of rock muscle on The Possibility and the Promise. Launching the album with the scorching, emotive "Everything We Were Has Become What We Are" -- which goes so far as to incorporate a string section at one point -- the bandmembers exhibit a musical depth beyond their early twenties, even if the simplistic Dashboard Confessional-like lyrics seem so high school. Still, frontman Matt Young is a star in waiting, as his peers borrow from everyone from Thrice to Matchbook Romance to AFI. Those punk and pop-punk inspirations aren't bad ones, as the hook-laden "Gone So Young" and the sappy punch of "The Right to Write Me Off" assure, and with time and little more ingenuity Amber Pacific could make the big time.