Review: Better Than Never – Head Under Water

A genre very close to my heart is pop punk so I just couldn’t refuse to take up the offer to listen to some new underground UK pop punk courtesy of Oxford sextet Better Than Never. They have just released their sophomore EP Head Under Water via Fox Records and really have sparked some attention in the UK scene with this release.

With the six member line up it’s clearly evident that Better Than Never decided to take maximum advantage of their girthy line up. The result of this is an EP jam-packed with hard-hitting layers: the dual vocalists are used to maximum effect, triple stacked guitars cleverly interplay and the lyrical content delivers a punch to the feels.

Vocalist James Harris speaks about the record saying:

Head Under Water covers the idea of how dealing with depression and anxiety can sometimes just feel like you are drowning in a sea of hopelessness, the ball and chain in the imagery showing how you can feel chained down by those struggles and anchored at rock bottom.

Track “Forty Eight” was very reminiscent of late 2000’s metalcore – something I thoroughly enjoyed! With the the pop punk scene becoming so saturated at the underground level, it was great to see some diversification. Though my favourite from the EP was lead single “Learning To Swim”.

Overall I felt the EP was a little on the short side in length, but it was a sweet taster of the potential that Better Than Never possess. I expect to see big things from them very soon!

Head Under Water is out now. You can grab a copy [amazon text=on Amazon&asin=B01M997ZCH] and help support this site.

Better Than Never: facebook | twitter

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