I love Neck Deep and I have for a while, and it’s likely that as an It’s All Dead reader, you do too. They’ve been one of the steadier presences in the revitalized and modern scene for 12 years now, even despite lineup changes. Their live shows are great, their production is tight, and they are one of the few bands that still stay true to the genre’s humble beginnings.

It may seem like the band’s new self-titled album is just a collection of the usual songs about wondering if a breakup is imminent, and leaving your hometown, but the main character of the album starts off as a “Dumbstruck Dumbf**k” and ends as a “Moody Weirdo”. Throughout the album we see him (us?) making the changes and doing the introspection to no longer go through life blind, but dealing with things and becoming someone who is in touch with themselves and those around them. Each track hits a different emotion, including whimsy with “Take Me With You” about aliens. We see examples of embarrassment, self-deprecation, and apathy in the first half, and we see an upward climb starting and culminating at the end. It’s inspiring.

What the album brings in substance, it sometimes lacks in flavor. If KFC has 11 herbs and spices, Neck Deep has like five at the most. The album is very one-note, without a lot of things to break it up. It’s consistent but almost to a fault, with a run time of 33 minutes. None of the tracks ever pass 4 minutes in length. I listened to the whole thing and made it to the closer without noticing at all. It’s a classic pop-punk album, but won’t be a classic like Wishful Thinking has become. Maybe that’s our fault on a fan level, maybe it’s the band’s. After all, a lot has changed since their first release in 2012, in both good and bad ways.

For recording, the guys started the process in L.A., then decided to go back home to the U.K. They opened up their own studio space and I think being comfortable to work the way they wanted translated into a predictable album. It is mostly self-produced by Seb Barlow, and I think that’s what sets it apart as their self-titled album. They realized outsourcing wasn’t the way they wanted to go and took a different route. I give them props for recognizing that and not settling for creative dissonance just because they had already started something.

With 2020’s All Distortions Are Intentional, the guys found out the hard way the differences between experimentation and following a formula that has brought them more success. I almost never hear anyone, fans or otherwise, talking about Distortions, even though I think it was a necessary step in their journey of discovering exactly what kind of band they want to be. I think it was meant to be a more introspective, hypothetical way of writing about things they have in the past – an attempt at NOT doing the same thing again – that kind of falls flat amongst the rest of their discography. Sonically, Neck Deep belongs right between Life’s Not Out to Get You and The Peace and the Panic; it’s a mix of the best parts of those two albums.

I like the album, and I’m by no means disappointed – but I’m also not surprised by any of the choices they made. I think while it hits the nostalgia, pop-punk, vibe that we’ve come to love from the band, this album needed something to set it apart. They have the token “change the world” track with “We Need More Bricks”, but the most impactful track to me is “They May Not Mean To (But They Do)”, because the change can’t happen until we heal from the past. In the end, this may be the self-titled album from Neck Deep, but it’s not THE Neck Deep album.

3.5/5

by Nadia Alves

Nadia Alves has been a music enthusiast since she can remember. Going to shows is her main pastime. The other is being upset when she can’t go to shows. This is her first official venture into writing about music. You can follow her on Twitter.