As It Is

As It Is is polished, competent and frustratingly frictionless. The band know how to assemble a modern pop-punk song: brisk drums, clean guitar layers, a pre-chorus that rises on schedule and a chorus engineered for immediate recognition. What the album lacks is resistance. Too many tracks glide past without enough rhythmic bite, tonal contrast or melodic character to leave a mark.

“I’m So Alive!” opens brightly and establishes the album’s central problem. The arrangement is energetic on paper, but the production rounds off the edges until the drums feel more decorative than driving. “Ruin My Life,” featuring Murray Macleod, adds a stronger vocal contrast and one of the record’s better hooks, though its structure remains entirely predictable. “Do You Remember?” leans into nostalgia with professional efficiency but little tension.

The songs move efficiently, but efficiency is not the same as urgency, character or memorable tension.

“Live, Laugh, Love, Los Angeles” is at least willing to be specific, and its title carries a trace of dry self-awareness. Musically, however, it settles into the same smooth pulse. “Marilyn” and “Watching The World Go Bye” continue the pattern: clear melodies, tidy transitions, almost no danger. The rhythm section rarely disrupts the songs enough to create surprise.

The album improves around “Lose Your Way & Find Yourself,” where the pacing finally breathes and the emotional progression feels less pre-programmed. “Last At The Party” also benefits from a firmer chorus, while “Turn To Dust” introduces darker shading without fully altering the record’s soft focus. “If I Ever Lost You” and “Not Anymore” return to familiar territory, and by then the repetition is difficult to ignore.

“What If It All Works Out” closes with the expected uplift, but the question exposes the album’s weakness. What happens when every element works exactly as intended? Here, the answer is a record with no obvious technical failure and too little personality. As It Is is easy to hear, easy to understand and just as easy to forget.