Album Review: As It Is - 'As It Is'
After over a decade of records, tours, festival appearances and everything else a band can dream of, Brighton band As It Is are showing no sign of stopping now. Coming off the tenth anniversary celebrations of their debut record Never Happy, Ever After, the group are showing that there is still music to make, feelings to feel, and a lot more of themselves to offer. Enter their brand new self-titled release As It Is.
Coming together as a four-piece for the first time in many years, As It Is captured what made them a pop-rock phenomenon in the first place with this new record. Starting off is the high-energy track ‘I’m So Alive’; a piece that feels straight out of a random pocket of the band’s back catalogue. It’s that catchy riff carrying the song, along with frontman Patty Walters belting out the lyrics with the help of a chorus of additional voices as the track reaches its climax.
To open with something so big, so bouncy, so positive; it would make one wonder if this is truly As It Is, if it wasn’t for that trademark pop-punk style that solidifies it. A sound that the group have refined into their own throughout their rise in the 2010s and now know better than most others in their generation. It’s a sound that is ‘very As It Is’, one may say. It doesn’t get any better than that for the group.
One of the standout tracks of the self-titled record is ‘Live, Laugh, Love, Los Angeles’. An anthem about the downfalls of the United States of America, inspired musically by classic Americana rock acts and lyrically about the trials and troubles of the everyday US citizen. Mentioning the high costs of healthcare, gun crime fatalities, and the politicising of religion to create a false sense of safety, it is a too true story for Americans such as vocalist Walters.
It is a different take from the usual As It Is track but it is just as necessary to release. The band chose to release ‘Live, Laugh, Love, Los Angeles’ as a single due to the political climate across the pond at this moment and not wanting to be silent about any of it. As a band who made their brand expressing pain and fear with no holding back, à la 2018’s The Great Depression, this shows not only they are attuned with their emotions but they are attuned to the world around them outside of the industry. At a time when people say musicians should stick to their music rather than infiltrate politics, the more bands who are holding a mirror up to these atrocities the better it will be in the long run. And that does include this little pop-rock quartet based in an English coastal city.
‘Lose Your Way & Find Yourself’ is a track about self-improvement and being proud of personal progress both made alone and made with the help of friends. ‘If I Ever Lost You’ is a call to help, rather than a call for help, when seeing someone struggle with life and being willing to give them everything to survive. ‘What If It All Works Out’ closes the record with a half-hopeful track exploring taking chances and enjoying the little things when the world is on fire to try and make good out of the bad. These are topics that As It Is know well, and know how to word in a way that resonates with their core audience and beyond, in a reach even they can’t imagine. The hopeless-hopeful clashes that they know too well; the wanting to be okay while knowing it takes time, hard work, good efforts; the believing in a world that is against everyone and believing in change that cannot be seen at this moment. That is As It Is.
As It Is is a perfect title for this new release, as every track is a perfect artistic example of what the band brings to the forefront time and time again. Revelling as both the stereotypical “emo” band and going that little bit deeper than the usual names that float around in the industry. It’s not just feeling sad: it’s feeling joy, love, defeat, fear, pain, and much more.
Simply put: As It Is really is just As It Is.
Words by Jo Cosgrove
