Copies of ANOTHER STARTING LINE began appearing in Japanese record stores on October 4, one day before its official release. There had been no advance promotion. Fans who found the CD spread the news on social media, along with reports of stock and queues at individual stores.
For its first three weeks, the single was sold through major physical CD shops rather than online. Ken Yokoyama said the band wanted to see what could still be made interesting in a world where obtaining music had become so convenient, while Akihiro Nanba wanted people to physically pick up the record. Online sales and downloads followed on October 26.
The title track placed familiar Hi-STANDARD elements at the centre of that return. Contemporary coverage by ROCKIN'ON JAPAN highlighted its blended vocal harmonies and melody, backed by the straightforward guitar, bass and drums of the trio. The same review described the four songs as deliberately simple in their construction, close to the sound associated with the band's earlier records.
ANOTHER STARTING LINE sold 48,000 copies on its first day. Its first-week total reached 136,000, giving Hi-STANDARD their first No. 1 on the weekly Oricon singles chart.
The surprise of finding the record in a shop cannot be recreated ten years later. “ANOTHER STARTING LINE” can. Start there.