Album Reviews

Following up on their 2015 debut, As It Is are back with a new album, simply titled “okay.”. A title that pretty much sums up the entire album.

These guys do the whole sugary pop-punk thing surprisingly well. It is upbeat, melodic as hell and all the songs come with an instant sense of familiarity. Unfortunately the album is also as by the numbers as you can get. Opening track “Pretty Little Distance” and “Rachel” are solid tunes in their own right, but it is extremely hard to find any kind of difference between these tracks and 90% of all the other pop-punk songs out there. Right down to the high-pitched, slightly whiny vocals.

The band veers off to something a bit darker about halfway through the album with “No Way Out” and “Austen”. But even these songs fail to make the album stand out from anything Drive-Thru or Fearless ever put out in the past.

Track listing:

1. Pretty Little Distance
2. Okay
3. Hey Rachel
4. Patchwork Love
5. Curtains Close
6. No Way Out
7. Soap
8. Austen
9. Until I Return
10. The Coast Is Where Home Is
11. Still Remembering