Album Reviews

Self-titled albums usually announce a fresh start or something of a departure from business as usual. And that’s no different in the case of the biggest Welsh success story since Tom Jones. For their fifth album, Neck Deep returned home and wrote, recorded and procuded their new album themselves at their warehouse, just a few miles down the road from where they grew up.

What they ended up with is a bouncy pop punk album that rushes out the gate with opener ‘Dumbstruck Dumbfuck’ and then keeps on forging ahead, sounding not unlike a pre-middle-aged New Found Glory. Granted, the album’s second half doesn’t hit quite as hard as the first half with all too generic songs like 'They Don't Mean To (But They Do)' and 'It Won't Be Like This Forever,' but a song like ‘Take Me With You’ makes it well worth your time. Basically one big tip of the hat to Blink-182, right down to Tom DeLonge’s obsession with aliens, but a very good tip of the hat.

It’s surprising how refreshing it is to see the band take it back to where they started, rather than continuing their flirtations with Britpop as heard on 2020’s ‘All Distortions Are Intentional’. Neck Deep’s new album shows a band who have embraced out who they are and what their limitations are, and decided to run with the sound that got them where they are today rather than trying to reinvent themselves. The result? A solid no-frills pop-punk album that sounds bright and shiny in all the right places.

Neck Deep track list:

1. Dumbstruck Dumbf**k
2. Sort Yourself Out
3. This Is All My Fault
4. We Need More Bricks
5. Heartbreak Of The Century
6. Go Outside!
7. Take Me With You
8. They May Not Mean To (But They Do)
9. It Won’t Be Like This Forever
10. Moody Weirdo