Neck Deep’s sophomore album Life’s Not Out To Get You, which is produced by A Day To Remember’s Jeremy Mckinion, is an uplifting, exciting album and yet another great album to come from pop punk this year.
Lead single Can’t Kick Up The Roots is an uplifting song about home and takes a different approach to the generic “I hate my town” pop punk stereotype and is about how the band are actually kinda fond of their shipwreck town. The melodies in the song show how vocalist Ben Barlow has grown as a vocalist and how he’s improved since their debut album. The instrumental is upbeat, fun and full of energy that’ll make you wanna jump and dance along with the song.
The band show off thier headbang inducing instrumentials with songs like Kali Ma, Smooth Seas Don’t Make Good Sailors and Gold Steps. The guitarists show off their impressive abilities throughout the album with impressive riffs all through the album, whilst also showing they’re able to write slower-moving compositions with the inclusion of December, which is an acoustic song with some fantastic guitar melodys and moving lyrics.
Threat Level Midnight is an upbeat song musically but not so much lyrically. Lyrics touch on topics such as lack of sleep, love and friends. It’s a well composed song and shows off how the band have matured musically and lyrically which is great because the band are a moving force and it would be a shame if they didn’t grow.
Overall the album is fun and energetic. The band have matured musically and as a band and are on a steep incline of popularity with the album breaking into the UK top ten and the fact they write good music. Fun and energetic are words that describe Neck Deep to a T and the band have nowhere to go but up.
8/10
