It’s a great time for UK pop-punk right now. Heavy-hitting US labels Hopeless and Pure Noise are taking notice of the homegrown scene, with Neck Deep’s success on the former proving the catalyst (pun absolutely intended) for a UK-centric signing spree. 2015 has seen deals inked for Trash Boat, Boston Manor and Roam (among other less-’pop’ contenders like Milk Teeth) and sliding record sales aside, there hasn’t been a better time to be a British pop-punker since the early-00s heydey of Deck Cheese Records.
But…but… the spectre of one band in particular looms large over much of this apparent scene explosion. Pure Noise Records is also home to The Story So Far; Roam are named after a track from TSSF’s first album; and no matter how much you like Neck Deep and Trash Boat the DNA of those bands has had the gaps in its strands filled in, Jurassic Park style, with elements derived from the hugely influential California act. Parker finds a way.
Set against this backdrop of transparent influence, Bristol’s Highlives have the potential to be a breath of fresh air. Opening track ‘Wake Me Up’ is a belter, proudly packing a riff that could take out Godzilla and those weird horny insect monsters from the 2014 reboot. The chorus is every bit as huge too, boasting guitar slides and sub drops and everything that makes pop-punk fun.
The rest of the EP sadly fails to live up to this initial promise, lapsing far too often into heard-it-all-before double-time drumming and uninspired bar chord progressions. There’s also a slight hangover of the Neck Deep/TSSF school of amelodic, nasal singing but when Liam Edwards and Ben Lucas deign to write vocal melodies, the band are more reminiscent of acts like Nathan Detroit than any of their American forbears.
Make no mistake: Highlives are ahead of much of the generic pack, and between ‘Wake Me Up’ and the textured ‘Walking Blind’ there are signs that they could well be on their way to releasing a genuinely stand-out release. What we have here is a very promising début EP, with a couple of decent tunes and bundles of potential.
ROB BARBOUR