Review Summary: Neck Deep move forward, even though their third full length outing isn't their best project to date.
Welsh pop punk band Neck Deep are flirting with newfound expectations with the release of their third studio album
The Peace and the Panic. The most obvious reason? This is the follow-up to their
incredible career effort
Life's Not Out to Get You, an album that achieved a couple of things. For one, it added to the
absurdly long list of great albums released in 2015. But it also launched the group's career, establishing them as genre leaders going forward, getting their song "Serpents" featured on WWE's NXT Takeover series and earning them two headlining stints on Vans Warped Tour, the latter of which concluding just last week. Needless to say, there is a lot riding on this new album to at least land in the same ballpark as its masterpiece predecessor and Neck Deep mostly succeed in doing so.
It must be mentioned, however, that this is not the same band that recorded
Life's Not Out to Get You. Lead guitarist Lloyd Roberts left the band just nine days after that album's release on unfounded allegations of sexual misconduct. His replacement, Sam Bowden, is making his recorded debut on
The Peace and the Panic. Lead singer Ben Barlow's father passed away in between album cycles. Before even going into this record, you can surmise Neck Deep have matured and are going to translate the last two years into writing material. And they certainly have done that; there's a much greater emotional through-line present here and the summery pop punk anthems must now coincide with wistful, crestfallen passages of loss, moving on and fear. With that said,
The Peace and the Panic is certainly an appropriate album title.
The album opens with two highly enjoyable bangers in the form of "Motion Sickness" and lead off single "Happy Judgement Day." These tracks are great reminders of the
Life's Not Out to Get You era, with searing guitars and great vocals from Ben Barlow. The two tracks vie for status as some of Neck Deep's best songs yet. Once the dust settles, though, the group officially embarks on a new direction. "The Great Delusion" mixes in pop punk riffs with modestly slowed down pacing. The track's mid tempo verses conjure up a reverberant alternative rock approach, while "Parachute" is plagued by a marginally boring chorus in which Barlow sounds a tad disengaged.
Where Neck Deep do succeed in evolving their sound comes in the form of "In Bloom." The band called this track one of the best they've ever written and they aren't wrong, either. The pop rock leanings are much more earnest here, with a lot of clean, glossy shimmer on the electric guitars, one of Ben Barlow's best vocal performances yet and surprisingly strong lyrics singing of a relationship stuck in neutral. "In Bloom" provides the listener with the promise that Neck Deep are making the right choice to evolve stylistically. The track showcases how great this band can be when they really give it their all.
Neck Deep try their hand again at pop rock/alt rock with "Critical Mistake." The song is certainly a solid cut. Pop punk riffs and drumming are traded for fairly quiet, poppier instrumentals that take a back seat to the track's great vocal harmonies. Bassist Fil Thorpe Evans contributes great backing vocals all throughout
The Peace and the Panic and it's nice to see the band not just lean on Ben alone for strong vocal presence. "Wish You Were Here" is the "December" of this album, but the approach, at least lyrically, is entirely different.
Ben Barlow isn't singing of a former muse this time around. He leaves the opening half up to the listener's interpretation, to whatever or whomever they choose, before Barlow officially dedicates this track's especially wistful lyrics to his late father. He doesn't call his father by name, but it's not hard to surmise that this is the case. Despite the woeful passages, it's actually quite interesting to see a track transform in real time, from being open to your interpretation to having a specific devotion does garner the track some elevated uniqueness.
"Heavy Lies" is a much needed return to the pop punk side of the spectrum. This song proves the group can still churn out meaty and, dare I say, heavier tracks that remind the listener how catchy this group can be. "19 Seventy Sumthin'" cries out for days gone by when true love mattered and Barlow's late father was still around. Even if the composition itself turns away fans of Neck Deep's back catalog, you can't deny it leaves the group more cohesive and arguably better off. Even in spite of
that, Barlow's vocal performance leaves a tad to be desired. "Where Do We Go When We Go" closes the album in strong fashion. Pop punk riffs are back, albeit, blended in with a very poppy pre-chorus. Nevertheless, the track provides some nice grit and bite to bring
The Peace and the Panic to a close.
Upon the album reaching the finish line, the time comes to ask an important question; is it better than
Life's Not Out to Get You? Well, the album offers only a handful of songs that can compete with that album in terms of composition and execution. Not surprisingly, those tracks are album highlights and to be fair, they are among the best cuts this group has ever put out. But the album does experience some brief growing pains. This veer into poppier, alt rock stylings wasn't going to be easy, especially when factoring in the increased melancholy in the lyrical content. When the time comes to look back on this album, it's safe to say history will judge
Life's Not Out to Get You far more favorably. But, even so, this is still a great album that fully cements Neck Deep as genre leaders and for that,
The Peace and the Panic cannot be called anything else but a success.
