Neck Deep have announced their upcoming self-titled album ‘Neck Deep,’ set for release on January 19, 2024, via Hopeless Records. “We’re so stoked to announce our new self-made, self-titled record,” shares vocalist Ben Barlow. “With a return to roots approach, we made this record ourselves at our warehouse in North Wales, with Seb at the helm, and the rest of us over his shoulder, like it was at the start.”
Alongside the announcement, Neck Deep have shared their newest single ‘It Won’t Be Like This Forever.’ On the track, Barlow shares: “’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 accompanying music video captivates the audience by giving us a garage performance from Neck Deep creatively weaving the symbolism of paper airplanes into a colorful narrative that bridges the gap between distant hearts. The vibrant colored video (filled with fan favorite “easter eggs”) reminds people that they can persevere through difficulties because change and better days are on the horizon.
The new album encompasses everything Neck Deep have excelled at across their career, enhanced and dialed to eleven. From the bouncing bombast of ‘Dumbstruck, Dumbf**k’ and the ripping intensity of ‘Sort Yourself Out,’ to the poetic introspection of ‘They Don’t Mean To (But They Do),’ it’s an album that boasts a song for almost any occasion (including, in recent single ‘Take Me With You,’ the impending alien invasion).
‘Neck Deep’ tracklist:
01. Dumbstruck Dumbf**k
02. Sort Yourself Out
03. This Is All My Fault
04. We Need More Bricks
05. Heartbreak Of The Century
06. Go Outside!
07. Take Me With You
08. They May Not Mean To (But They Do)
09. It Won’t Be Like This Forever
10. Moody Weirdo
In the little over a decade since Neck Deep formed in the Barlow brothers’ spare room in Wrexham, Wales, a lot has changed. From the scrappy, naively hopeful beginnings that define the starting of so many teenage bands, the pop punks have gone on to be one of British Rock music’s most successful global exports in recent memory: top 5 records in both the US and UK, global touring, viral hits and over a billion streams just some of the fruits of ten years spent mastering their craft.
But now, as the band stands on the brink of their fifth, self-titled LP, there’s an acknowledgment that the more things change, the more – in some ways at least – they stay the same.
“This album is the sound of us knowing ourselves and knowing our ability” explains frontman and youngest Barlow sibling Ben. “It’s unapologetically us. We’re professional songwriters now and we’ve really honed 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.”
For this record, the band, completed by Ben’s older brother and bassist Seb Barlow, guitarists Matt West and Sam Bowden, and drummer Matt Powles, took ‘doing their own thing’ – and only their own thing – to the next level. Eschewing a keen list of collaborators and producers eager to work with one of rock’s hottest properties and choosing, instead, to write and record in their own warehouse space, mere miles from where they grew up. Old school, just like it used to be.