Life's Not Out To Get You by Neck Deep

Who would have thought the UK's brightest pop-punk stars would come from a little place like Wrexham? Yeah, we're talking about Neck Deep because they have just dropped their second full length album and it's a bloody firecracker! Now heralded as the boys to compete with amidst the massive pop-punk revival, these five lads from North Wales have seriously proven they are the best of the best. Life's Not Out To Get You is bigger, better and ballsier than anything this band have done before, and considering they were already pretty damn great, that's really saying something!

LNOTGY opens with Citizens Of Earth which is the most versatile Neck Deep have sounded in their career so far. It's heavier and surprisingly it suits them. "Fuck Neck Deep, they're shit, Ben's Dad owns a record label" the band mock at the end which just shows these boys aren't letting the critics bother them. Singles Can't Kick Up The Roots and Gold Steps are illustrations of a more traditional Neck Deep and sandwiched between them is the awesome Kali Ma, featuring Jeremy McKinnon of A Day To Remember and a pretty gnarly breakdown. Not only is he featuring on the album (making it even more rad) but he also helped produce it, which is evident from the riffs and style weaved throughout the album as a whole. The Beach Is For Lovers (Not For Losers) is reminiscent of emo cuties Cute Is What We Aim For and I Hope This Come Backs To Haunt You has hints of new school Blink 182 to it, showing that although Neck Deep have their own sound, they're still influenced by some of the best. Then there is December which will undoubtedly reach the same acoustic adoration A Part Of Me has as Ben odes "I hope you get your ballroom floor, your perfect house with the rose red doors." The lyrics, as always, are a highlight of the album and they come as purposeful as they do cute: "so 'fuck you' to the world and stand your ground" calls Ben on Can't Kick Up The Roots.

Neck Deep have created a gem of an album here and all the hype has been more than worth it. If this band can reach greater heights than they already have then who knows where that will be, but if they're going beyond the stars, Life's Not Out To Get You will certainly take them there.

9/10
Listen to: Citizens Of Earth, Kali Ma, December