Album Review: AS IT IS - 'I WENT TO HELL AND BACK'
With everything the world has been through over the last two years, As It Is said it best when they said I WENT TO HELL AND BACK.
The follow-up to the Brighton band’s 2018 record The Great Depression, they take the world back to a simpler time when pandemics weren’t a thing and scene culture took hold. The album holds a level of nostalgia and familiarity that even the alternative youth of today can reminisce within its presence. As It Is have always lived in the aesthetics and sounds of old-school pop-punk bands, and have executed this inspiration in a serious yet tongue-in-cheek manner that it’s deserving of.
The louder side of the record comes out with singles such as ‘ILY, HOW ARE YOU?’ and ‘IDGAF’; some of the tracks that hold the most importance in terms of the band’s message to encourage fans to relive the heyday of the emo and scene subcultures. Most fans have lived these days - and mourn the loss of these days - and these are the callbacks that have come back in fashion recently. The revival of the emo and pop-punk lifestyles has been great since the beginning of the decade - a phenomenon called the “Rawring 20s” - and As It Is are at that forefront here in the UK. This is confirmed in ‘I MISS 2003’, an anthem of pop-punk puns and cheesy emotion relating back to the height of the alternative scene as we know it today.
In times of uncertainty, it’s common to find comfort in the past. Frontman Patty Walters is here to show the world the comfort in remembering 2003.
I WENT TO HELL AND BACK is one of the most striking albums to come from the punk outfit, as it knocks up their sound a notch or three and pushes them out of their comfort zone further than The Great Depression managed to. With tracks like ‘IN THREES’, which recruits help from their friends in American alt act Set It Off, it shows that As It Is are only growing and moving on through a tough time in music to change, develop, strengthen.
As It Is went to hell, but at least they’ve come back and brought some new music with them!
Words by Jo Cosgrove
