{"id":3492,"date":"2016-11-30T15:00:38","date_gmt":"2016-11-30T15:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-better-than-never-head-under-water-ep\/"},"modified":"2018-03-21T22:16:00","modified_gmt":"2018-03-21T22:16:00","slug":"review-better-than-never-head-under-water-ep","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-better-than-never-head-under-water-ep\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Better Than Never \u2013 Head Under Water EP"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><figure class=\"tmblr-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/78.media.tumblr.com\/54a6211def3103e3aa763426b5e4b9fa\/tumblr_ohb8k3lEV91r8no6so2_1280.jpg\" width=\"250em\" alt=\"\" title=\"\"><\/figure>\n<p>Chances are, if you\u2019re in a pop-punk band in 2016, you\u2019re going to be in some way derivative of what has gone before. It\u2019s a sad fact, but the scene is far beyond the point of saturation and to stand out you\u2019re going to have to bring something new to the table. <\/p>\n<p>Oxford sextet <b>Better Than Never<\/b> fare better than most on <i>&lsquo;Head Under Water&rsquo;<\/i>, taking cues from New Found Glory, Moose Blood and A Day To Remember to create a sound that pillages liberally yet never feels like a tribute, despite adhering rigidly to the tired pop-punk tropes (even down to the clich\u00e9d cartoon artwork). <\/p>\n<p> <!-- more --><\/p>\n<p> <i>\u2018Head Under Water\u2019<\/i> starts off like a runaway train \u2013 opener <i>\u2018126\u2019<\/i> is a foot-stomping minute prelude that sets the scene for the following four songs. Backed by a first rate production job (it honestly sounds massive) and vocals that aren\u2019t overly-Americanised, there\u2019s a clear identity despite the lack of originality. <i>\u2018Learning To Swim\u2019<\/i> is even better, building on this strong start with a killer chorus and some bold hooks. <\/p>\n<p>In fact, if you\u2019ll excuse the pun, <i>\u2018Head Above Water\u2019<\/i> goes along swimmingly until you hit the faux-hardcore\/melodic hardcore silliness of <i>\u2018Forty Eight\u2019<\/i>. At best ill-judged, it absolutely destroys the flow of the EP, and you might even question if it\u2019s the same band. That said, at least it isn\u2019t an insufferable \u2018heartfelt\u2019 acoustic number. <\/p>\n<p>Fortunately, closing number <i>\u2018Closehill Lane\u2019<\/i> serves as a suitable palate cleanser, erasing the bitter taste and preparing you for another run through the all-too-brief EP. <\/p>\n<p> <i>\u2018Head Under Water\u2019<\/i> is far from perfect \u2013 nor does it reinvent the genre \u2013 but it does possess a strong identity, a shiny production job and sterling songwriting. In a competitive and oversaturated genre, it might just be enough to mark out <b>Better Than Never<\/b> as 2017\u2019s most likely to&hellip; <\/p>\n<p>3.5\/5<\/p>\n<p><em>\u2019Head Under Water&rsquo;<\/em> EP by <b>Better Than Never<\/b> is released on 2nd December on <b>Fox Records<\/b>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Better Than Never<\/strong> links: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/BTNband\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Facebook<\/a>|<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/btn_uk\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Twitter<\/a>|<a href=\"https:\/\/betterthannever.bandcamp.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> Bandcamp<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Words by Rob Mair (<a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/BobNightMair\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">@BobNightMair<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Chances are, if you\u2019re in a pop-punk band in 2016, you\u2019re going to be in some way derivative of what has gone before. It\u2019s a sad fact, but the scene is far beyond the point of saturation and to stand out you\u2019re going to have to bring something new to the table. Oxford sextet Better [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":15955,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[2559,320,2572,15022],"class_list":["post-3492","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-album-reviews","tag-better-than-never","tag-fox-records","tag-head-under-water","tag-rob-mair"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Review: Better Than Never \u2013 Head Under Water EP - Already Heard Staging<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Chances are, if you\u2019re in a pop-punk band in 2016, you\u2019re going to be in some way derivative of what has gone before. 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