Welsh pop-punks Neck Deep have announced their fifth album, which is self-titled and due Jan. 19 via Hopeless Records (preorder). “With a return to roots approach, we made this record ourselves at our warehouse in North Wales, with [bassist] Seb [Barlow] at the helm, and the rest of us over his shoulder, like it was at the start,” vocalist Ben Barlow says.
“This album is the sound of us knowing ourselves and knowing our ability,” he continues. “It’s unapologetically us. We’re professional songwriters now, and we’ve really homed in on what we’re good at — but it’s also about having fun and enjoying writing these tracks. And there are those little sonic signatures in the mix that even I can’t really put my finger on that just make it Neck Deep. It happens when we get in a room together and it clicks — it’s us just doing our thing like we always have.”
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The album includes recent single “Take Me With You,” the alien-themed song that nods not just at blink-182’s style of pop punk but also Tom DeLonge’s extraterrestrial obsessions, their February single “Heartbreak of the Century,” and it also includes the just-released “It Won’t Be Like This Forever.” This one’s another pop-punk sugar rush, and here’s what Ben says about it:
“It Won’t Be Like This Forever” came around really easily and naturally. We wrote the chorus just by chance while working on another song and it ended up being our favorite song on the record. We wrote it the first time we got together after covid, down in Wales. I guess at the time we were thinking that ‘it won’t be like this forever’ (guess we were right) but as time has gone on the world has been presented with a whole slew of other problems and so it’s maintained its relevance. You can view it through that lens or you can zoom in and make it more personal, which I ended up doing. Meaning that the tough times don’t always last and having someone to help you through those times is a beautiful part of life and love. It’s a love song, a hope song, and a self-improvement song all in one!
The song comes with a video directed by Max Moore, and the band promise that it includes some Easter eggs for longtime fans. Check it out below.
Neck Deep tracklist:1. “Dumbstruck Dumbf**k”2. “Sort Yourself Out”3. “This Is All My Fault”4. “We Need More Bricks”5. “Heartbreak Of The Century”6. “Go Outside!”7. “Take Me With You”8. “They May Not Mean To (But They Do)”9. “It Won’t Be Like This Forever”10. “Moody Weirdo”
Neck Deep tour datesOctober 15 – Leeds, United Kingdom – The Key ClubOctober 16 – Glasgow, United Kingdom – SlayOctober 17 – Cardiff, United Kingdom – The GlobeOctober 18 – Bournemouth, United Kingdom – Old Fire Station Holden Hurst RoadOctober 19 – Nijmegen, Netherlands – DoornroosjeOctober 22 – Cologne, Germany – Live Music HallOctober 24 – Berlin, Germany – Columbia TheaterOctober 25 – Warsaw, Poland – ProximaOctober 26 – Prague, Czech Republic – MeetFactoryOctober 28 – Vienna, Austria – Arena WienOctober 29 – Milan, Italy – Magazzini GeneraliOctober 30 – Grafin bei München, Germany – TechnikumNovember 1 – Zürich, Switzerland – PlazaNovember 2 – Ghent, Belgium – VooruitNovember 3 – Wiesbaden, Germany – SchlachthofNovember 5 – Hamburg, Germany – MarkthalleNovember 6 – Paris, France – La Machine du Moulin RougeMarch 28 – London, UK – Alexandra Palace
