Source: Album Artwork
Nottingham five-piece High Tides have released their sophomore album I’m Not Giving Up, I’m Just Starting Over, and it could be the final push they needed to count themselves among the best pop-punk bands the UK is producing at the moment. The follow-up to their debut album Home released in last year, shows that the band have grown up, and are keen to show their maturity and bring something different to the table.
Any time a UK pop-punk band releases a new album is very exciting in the current trend. There is such a huge amount of really good bands being churned out from the UK at the moment, all competing to do it better or differently to all the others. High Tides are no exception to this, and I’m Not Giving Up, I’m Just Starting Over is proof that they are experimenting to make themselves stand out from the crowd.
This eight track ‘mini album’ could have easily gone either way; with such few tracks, it would be easy for I’m Not Giving Up, I’m Just Starting Over to sound like a random combination of songs. But the band have very cleverly tied tracks together to make the release feel like a real package. Rather than thinking of I’m Not Giving Up, I’m Just Starting Over as an album, it’s probably better to think of it as an EP consisting of an intro, an interlude, an acoustic track and five pretty textbook pop-punk songs.
Intros and interludes can sound overindulgent if done needlessly, but High Tides have used them perfectly. Vocals in the intro ‘Resolution’ directly relate to lyrics in the interlude ‘Realisation’ and to ‘Bridges’. This gives I’m Not Giving Up, I’m Just Starting Over almost a concept-album feel, but without the concept. It feels like you’re being told a story through a collection of songs. The mostly-acoustic final track ‘Home’ really wraps this up nicely, and gives singer Christian Lichfield a chance to show off his amazing voice.
This is one part of I’m Not Giving Up, I’m Just Starting Over that could have been better. Lichfield is an enormously talented vocalist, but it’s only really on the final track that you realise just how great his voice is. Throughout most of the release, he is drowned out by guitars, drums and bass. Don’t get us wrong, we love a catchy pop-punk guitar riff with complimentary drum beats and basslines, but vocals and lyrics count a lot in the world of pop-punk.
There is a more mature and deeper side to High Tides in this album. The themes of I’m Not Giving Up, I’m Just Starting Over are quite emotional, and they fulfil their promise of adding an emo side to pop-punk. If you’re looking for cliché pop-punk, you won’t need to look any further either. Gang vocals, woah-ohs and songs that will get stuck in your head for days? Check.
This is a lively, energetic album from a very promising pop-punk band. High Tides haven’t redesigned the wheel with I’m Not Giving Up, I’m Just Starting Over, but they have produced a very neat, well-produced and put together collection of eight tracks which will satisfy any pop-punk fan.
