Album Review

As It Is – Never Happy, Ever After

• 20th Apr 2015

It’s been a long time coming for the release of debut album Never Happy, Ever After from As It Is, but thankfully it was well worth the wait. Fronted by American-by-way-of-Reading, Youtube sensation Patty Walters, the album shows a sense of maturity that moves them on from their This Mind of Mine EP.

Lead single, ‘Dialtones’, has a sense of The Starting Line but with more pop and just as much passion. This is something that continues throughout the album, with huge emo verses and pop punk choruses. The inspiration behind the album is obvious at times, through tracks such as ‘Speak Soft’, ‘You, The Room & The Devil On Your Shoulder’ and ‘Silence (Pretending’s So Comfortable)’. Although not all of the tracks are stick-in-your-head catchy, there is something about the majority of the songs that shows that the boys and producer James Paul Wisner worked some real magic.

There are tracks on this album that make you think that finally they could be a UK pop punk band that may be taken seriously, what with All Time Low getting their first UK number one album this year, maybe this is a start to something big from the UK too, fronted by bands like As It Is.

Fan favourite ‘Can’t Save Myself’ has once again made its way on to their album, but the new video (think Flight of the Conchords) to ‘Cheap Shots & Setbacks’ shows that the band have had as much fun creating the album and putting the work into the band as they have crafting the real emo (dare I say it) tendencies.

The album is the icing on the cake for As It Is, as the past 12 months have moved them from being rank outsiders with a “Youtube star” frontman and a sole EP up to a professional band releasing singles, consistent touring in the UK, Europe and the USA, huge festival announcements for summer 2015 and possibly most importantly being the first ever non-US band signed to Fearless Records. A solid album, which will be a joy to watch fans singing along to, even if they do it in faux-American accents, but “Never Happy, Ever After” is the clear front runner for outstanding debut album of 2015.

– Jess Kempner

Venue: Never Happy, Ever After
Support Band: Fearless Records