Neck Deep - "All Distortions Are Intentional" Album Review

New eras of life can be something of beauty; and that beauty can bring on creative art. As for Neck Deep we see the band entering a new era of life full of new relationships and new endeavors. For lead vocalist Ben Barlow we see him entering a new relationship as we saw on the one-off singles "She's A God" and "Torn", and as for the band themselves they welcome new member Seb Barlow into the collective. So all of this leads up to the question what does Neck Deep bring to the table on their new album "All Distortions Are Intentional".

The album is an ode to new lovers that much is apparent and the overall sappiness of the record tends to borderline on cringe with how overtly "love centric" this album is and somehow the music and the overall vibe feels tainted as a result. Now the album is still pop-punk at it's core that's still the main vibe and some of the hooks are catchy and memorable but the more cleaned up sound and the higher singing register on Ben's vocals makes the album feel almost too cleaned up.

Now the record was produced by Matt Squire who has had his hand on many different projects so you would think that a vet in the industry would work well with Neck Deep but alas there feels like a broken connection that makes the record feel almost unfinished and in tern less memorable.

Now when the record hits it's biggest highs they hit hard starting with the track Fall which has that old-school pop punk vibe with some modern touches to it giving fans "Life's Not Out To Get You" and "The Peace And The Panic" vibes, Telling Stories reminds me a lot of the more faster moments on The Story So Far's last record "Proper Dose" which in a way aids the track to being one of the more memorable tunes on the record, What You Know reminds me a lot of In Bloom almost to the point of it feeling like companion piece to that track, and Pushing Daisies is a fine enough closing track that oddly gives me The Almost and Capital Lights vibes.

Now where the album falls flat is in it's most disappointing moments which boil down to the woke feeling of Sonderland, the overtly "Yungblud" inspired or else ripped off Lowlife, the safe Sick Joke which feels like it should pop off more than it does, and the awful I Revolve (Around You) which feels more like an early 5sos b-side than anything.

It's safe to say that "All Distortions" is a mixed bag, while not being a bad album by any means there's not really a whole lot on the record that will make me want to come back to it other than cherry picking tracks from the track list and adding them to playlists. 

The album sadly is their worst to date but don't take "worst" as a super opposing negative which makes the record sound like there's no redeeming qualities to the record because there are. But comparing this record to their back half of the catalog makes the record feel like a blemish on their discography. - Samuel Cook

Our rating: 3/5