Neck Deep is a pop punk band that was formed in 2012. They started as a D.I.Y. project of singer Ben Barlow and guitarist Lloyd Roberts. After testing the water with a couple of self-released online tracks, they issued their first EP. Their most notable albums are “A Rain in July”, “A History of Bad Decisions” and “Life’s Not Out to Get You.” They were very pop punk and were rained as one of the best in that time period. Between 2012-2016 pop punk hit its peak when bands like Neck Deep, The Story so Far, The Front Bottoms, Modern Baseball, The Wonder Years, Four Year Strong, Joyce Manor, Knuckle Puck, Major League and many others were releasing albums. The punk pop culture was in music heaven as all their favorite artists kept making great album after great album.
But now in 2017, punk pop has slowed down. All the great bands have now been taking time off to create other projects, while some are just done since the punk pop era has died down a bit. Almost no one toured at Warped Tour this year, which made fans say it was one of the worst line ups they have seen in years. One of the only pop punk bands that toured this year was Neck Deep.
When I listened to their 2015 release, “Life’s Not Out To Get You” I was amazed by the quality of the songs. Neck Deep was really only releasing EPs before this full-length album and I thought they were going to be one of the bands to take over punk pop. My favorites from that album were, “Can’t Kick up the Roots,” Kail Ma,” “December” and “Rock Bottom.” On the track “December” it touches on lost love where he sings, “I hope you get your ball room floor, Your perfect house with rose red doors, I’m the last thing you’d remember, It’s been a long, lonely December.” Also on their most famous track “A Part of Me” he sings, “I was falling for a girl who would ask me to come over, Just for a day, when her parents were away, Now all I can do is lay in my room, Fall asleep, dream of you, Then wake up and do nothing about it.” Also, the passion in his voice in this song brings tears to my eyes on occasion because the listener can tell that he missed this girl deeply, and that was the theme for most of their tracks- pure, raw emotion. I listened to this album for a few months because I was impressed that Neck Deep could produce a record like this, and I was rooting for them.
Seen above is Neck Deep’s new video “In Bloom”
They seemed to be going in a straight line up until I heard some of the tracks off their latest album, “The Peace and the Panic.” One of the tracks that I really didn’t like on this album was “In Bloom.” You can listen to it here. The back drop for this music video is pink flowers and Barlow couldn’t look more bored. In previous videos, they were shown screaming and playing instruments like in “Can’t Kick up The Roots.” Not only is the music video unlike anything they have ever done, the lyrics seem like they have only been through their first draft with lines like, “Sometimes I let it get to me and sometimes I know it gets to all of us” and the repetitive chorus of “sometimes that is not enough.” Even “stop calling me up” and “put the pieces back together.” Neck deep has successfully put every single lyrical cliche into their latest song, and don’t seem to notice. It really looks like they have sold out since this record leans more in the pop direction and almost no influences from punk. I would hope that they don’t go in this direction for their next album, but they have already released 5 tracks that seem to be primarily pop. Could this be because the record label knows that pop sells more, or did Neck Deep just put out a bad record? I hope they continue to go in their punk style for their next record or we might have lost another band to the power of pop radio.
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