Review Summary: ...but signs of regression likely aren't.
Before I jump head-first into why
All Distortions are Intentional is such a mixed bag, allow me to preface everything I'm about to say about this album with the following statement: I absolutely adore Neck Deep. Seeing how the band rose to prominence right around the time I graduated high-school, their brand of kinectic, hard-hitting pop-punk – rife wtih teen angst – couldn't have been more topical for me at the time. I recall the summer of 2015 working a dead-end job I wasn't happy with and lamenting a relationship that didn't work out, all while listening to
Life's Not out To Get You on repeat and admiring the stellar musicanship and the way front man Ben Barlow would drop emotive remarks like
"I'm missing you like *** today" and
"Life goes on and things they change". It was a time when I was foaming at the mouth for energetic, tumblr-friendly pop punk more than any other point in my life and Neck Deep quickly cemented themselves as one of my all-time favorite artists; a band showcasing colossal choruses ("Gold Steps"), immediate guitar riffs ("Crushing Grief") and gleefully fiddly drum patterns ("Rock Bottom") in an effortless manner – rivaled only by their equally skilled contemporaries like The Story so Far or The Wonder Years.
As the band grew in maturity and popularity – now effectively being the poster boys for label Hopeless Records – it wasn't exactly a huge surprise to see the band treading down the path of accessibility and complacency.
ADAI is a different beast entirely, focusing more on telling a conceptual story with characters like "Jett" and "Alice" in a fictional world dubbed "Sonderland". Though ambitious in its concept, the execution is all over the place.
ADAI is by far the most vocal-driven Neck Deep album to date. Drummer Dani Washington – a percussionist lauded for his metal-tinged approach to pop punk – has retired a good chunk of his chops in favor of serving the more restrained instrumentals. This wouldn't be a bad trade-off if Ben's vocals could confidently help navigate the band's journey into the unknown, but sadly, Ben's squeaky, high-pitched singing loses its luster all too fast and at times even borders on grating. Lead single "Lowlife" and its sentiments about how
"you're a normie" and
"I like some purple with my tangerine" is salvaged only by the slightly interesting instrumentation, which has a noticeable throwback feel to it, akin to acts like Weezer and early Green Day. It's the only saving grace for a song that's otherwise tarnished by Ben's lackluster melodies and lyrical content.
Later on in the tracklisting, Ben finds his footing way better on the cuddly sweet "What Took You So Long", "I Revolve (Around You)" and "Empty House", all of which are effective, full-on love ballads backed by energetic (and mostly) entertaining riffage and a considerably smoother vocal performance by Ben. The band even has the nerve to throw in a couple of songs that aim to capture the upbeat, full-throttle summer vibe of
Life's Not Out To Get You in the form of opening track "Sonderland" as well as "Telling Stories". While successful in capturing the essence of what made that record so special, it's still tough to shake the feeling that the shadow of
LNOTGY is looming over this record all throughout, especially when the band throws caution to the wind and hands us a poor attempt at an interlude track in the form of "Quarry", or the eye-rolling lyrical content of "When You Know" – with the former track being the absolute worst thing that Neck Deep has ever conceived. It's puzzling how a band all within the same record can go from dropping rock solid earworms like:
"These strange times that we live in will slowly eat you alive if you don't fit in" to headscratchers like:
"I'm a lowlife living the slow life baby, I'll see you in hell Mr. dead on the inside". Fortunately, the pros mostly outweigh the cons and both newcomers and longtime fans will likely be able to extract some semblance of enjoyment from
ADAI; a record that hopefully isn't meant to be a stepping stone for an even more inconsistent musical palette to come.
