You may remember that the Wrexham quintet were anointed as future bastions of British rock, the band that would spearhead the next generation of pop punk outfits. Due to this, if you look at the career of Neck Deep through this lens: ostensibly, they somewhat flopped. The reality though, is that neither of these things are true. Okay, the five-piece didn’t quite become a 2010’s version of Green Day. But they have undeniably become not just mainstays, but frontrunners of modern pop rock/pop punk. And let’s be honest: if you peeked into the Barlow brothers’ garage 14 years ago and offered them 4.1M monthly Spotify listeners, multiple worldwide/festival headline tours, and five albums, they’d have bitten your hand off before you could say “man, it sure rains a lot in Wales, doesn’t it?”
With their self-titled fifth offering, it’s evident that Neck Deep are still writing songs for the target demographic that sunk their teeth into 2015’s Life’s Not Out To Get You. On the surface that sounds like a harsh criticism but on the contrary, it’s actually the greatest charm to the record; hormone raging 17-year-olds can have as much fun here as nostalgia driven 30-year-olds. How many albums can you say that about? ‘Dumbstruck Dumbf**k’ blasts the gates of the record open with a party anthem fit for a university party minus the overwhelming stench of vomit emanating from the bathroom. Ben Barlow’s naïve yet infectious chorus reach sets the bar high on a record that predominantly maintains this high octane, jovial attitude throughout.
Similarly, the following duo of ‘Sort Yourself Out’ and ‘This is All My Fault’ hop around the tropes of pop punk, but without pandering to them. It’s not the first time we’ve Ben Barlow pen a track depicting misfortune in love but, challenge yourself to listen to his sliding lyric of “I could buy her flowers but they never fucking work” in front of this riff without bopping your head. ‘This is All My Fault’ on the other hand utilises a Taking Back Sunday-esque backdrop and frontloads it with a tale of accountability and open-heart regret. Neck Deep know how to write pop punk.
Thankfully, there’s no ‘obligatory slow one’ built to chase the fandom created for 2015’s ‘December’. You’d be forgiven for seeing a title like ‘It Won’t Be Like This Forever’ and expecting yet another journey through failed teenage romance ending in a self-aggrandising message. However, here Neck Deep do somewhat turn down the tempo, but only to create a track that borders between punch and pomp. It might be the most fun the band have sounded since the heights of ‘Gold Steps’. It’s serious, heartwarming, and has a ridiculously massive chorus on it. If we don’t mind Blink-182 still singing songs about dicks and farting because they’re good at it, we should let Neck Deep point fingers at failed romantic tails too, especially when they’re still good at it. This self-titled effort is the best they’ve been in almost a decade. They didn’t end up changing the world for pop punk, but they did end up conquering it.