Lines From a Book is the first full-length album by Christchurch band The Honesty. It’s primarily an acoustic record, but not in the sense of being full of mellow folk songs. Everything on this album is emotive and intense, and many of the songs build up to epic highs. Overall, The Honesty sound like an acoustic mixture of Anberlin and Mumsdollar, with the vocals of Dashboard Confessional thrown in for good measure. And the band harness that formula to craft some very clever songs.

The whole thing is melodically nimble and interesting throughout, and the likes of “Battleships” could rival the output of any decent commercial rock band, full of pleasing hooks and exiting on an appealing guitar line.

The downside is that while you get 15 good tracks, there isn’t much in the way of variety – besides in tempo – making this an album which you do have to be in the right mood for. Still, it’s actually very surprising to discover a band that’s this accomplished yet still under the radar. I’m sure they won’t be for long.

Three and a half stars out of five.