These days Pop Punk bands are about 20 for a dollar, most sound remarkably similar, write to the same formula and for every decent song produce a dozen that dissolve and vaporize as soon as they hit your ear. Despite a sound that is remarkably familiar, Brighton (UK) band As It Is thankfully sound like they can write a decent tune. There’s a very clean American flavour to their compositions which suggest the usual subjects as influences, but there’s also an energy driven by the rhythm section that suggests these guys have more to offer than most.
PRETTY LITTLE DISTANCE is a catchy, bouncy opener and very representative of everything that follows. Sure if you don’t lie Pop Punk its not an album to convert you but if you are an aficionado of such sounds this might just be a minor classic.
The title track that follows includes some great vocal harmonies and a mountainous chorus and like most of the tracks here tackles as subject matter the uncertainties of life these days especially for young people.
Whilst songs like HEY RACHEL, PATCHWORK LOVE and even OKAY are interesting enough lyrically you start to feel a certain similarity in pace and execution creeping in so its nice to get a track like CURTAINS CLOSE to take things down and show its not just all high energy fist-pumping action.
There are other nuances on the album too and the second half of the album is almost like the darker side with less optimism and less bounce. It’s a nice contrast that allows further lyrical depth. SOAP is pretty dark, and AUSTEN similarly has a little more gravity then the openers.
Like the opener THE COAST IS WHERE HOME IS is the albums other real ear-worm and we get a classic closer too in the acoustic STILL REMEMBERING. This is both As It Is best to date and a more than solid Pop Punk album that ill open the band up to a much bigger audience.
