On August 14, 2015, Neck Deep released their second studio album, Life's Not Out To Get You. The album did incredibly well, especially in the US and UK. It hit number one on three US Billboard charts (Vinyl Albums, Tastemaker Albums, and Digital Albums), and on the UK Independent Records. It also broke the top forty in Australiz, Ireland and Scottland. All of the songs on the album were written by Seb Barlow, Andrew Wade, Tom Denny and A Day To Remember's Jeremy Mckinnon. The album was also produced by Jeremy Mckinnon. The first single, "Can't Kick Up The Roots" came out on May 12, 2015 and is about as pop punk you can get in meaning. The 'roots' part refer to the love / hate feeling there is of the town. Again I say -how very pop punk of them. There always seems to one extreme or the other with pop punk -they either love or hate their home town. In this case, they acknowledge both sides of that. Its about Seb Barlow's home town, Wrexham, North Wales and he said its kind of about how much the area sucks, but also is what makes it theirs. They wanted to release something catchy for the summer, and frankly, I think they did a fantastic job. This was actually the first time I've ever listened to Neck Deep and frankly -what the hell was I missing? These guys are great. Just this single alone made me want to hear more, which frankly is what a single for an album is supposed to do. I noticed fairly quickly that Neck Deep has the perfect mix between modern pop punk, and 1990's punk rock. The line between the two is blurred fairly often anyways, but they somehow mixed the two together perfectly. Songs like, "Citizens Of Earth" sound like they could have been released twenty years ago, but they weren't. If I had to compare them to anyone, I couldn't do it easily. On some tracks they remind me a bit of Mayday Parade, or Hawthorne Heights, or even early Good Charlotte. They're a lot of fun, and I think that's a massive part of their appeal. As for favorite songs on the album, I think I would have to say, "Can't Kick Up The Roots", "Kali Ma", and "I Hope This Comes Back To Haunt You." All the tracks are a lot of fun, aside from "I Hope This Comes Back To Haunt You", which is more of a ballad and rather heart breaking. Rightfully so though, its about a heart break, and you're hoping they feel bad about what they did to you. Its still fairly catchy, but its also the way the emotions were portrayed, I just couldn't help but appreciate it. I look forward to hearing more from Neck Deep, and hopefully one day seeing them. Speaking of seeing them, you won't be able to for a little while but in September they will be playing several festivals. Those festivals include the High Elevation Rock Festival, Riot Fest and Texas Munity. For more information, please visit the respective festivals website. And be sure to stay up to day with Neck Deep by following them on all of their social media and checking out their official website.
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