Review Summary: Energic riffs, great vocal melodies and plenty of emotions make this cd a must buy for all pop-punk fanatics, both old and new to the genre.
From the beginning of the album, the band's influences are pretty clear: there is a bit of Blink 182 and most of all New Found Glory in this album. Surely enough, Neck Deep come out with this fast-paced cd mixing up several pop-punk genre variations into an overall product which is all but a boring cliche. The second track "Threat Level Midnight" with its captivating guitar riffs and catchy vocal melodies lets you immediately into Neck Deep's musical tendencies, followed up by "Can't Kick up the Roots", an authentic sing-along pop-punk anthem which can easily live up to the genre's expectations. Barlow's lyrics are nothing that special but they get to the point, often with original melodies, blending in perfectly with the guitar riff combinations. Then in come songs like Serpents and December, pop-punk ballads showing that Neck Deep can go the extra mile as far as emotions are concerned. December is a great track that awakes the emo kid in every person who stumbles upon it, even guys like me, who grew up with the likes of The Get up Kids, Rufio, My Chemical Romance etc.
I have personally never seen them live. However, from what I've seen from several live shows on video, Neck Deep take out their cd attitude to the stage, with an energic and engaging live show. The only thing I have to say is that I kind of had the feeling that Barlow's voice loses quite a lot of body and energy during live shows, which is a shame as I personally think that he is probably one of the best voices in the current pop-punk panorama.
