As It Is isn’t okay. And that is a good thing.
As It Is, a Brighton, England pop-punk band, just released their second studio album on January 20, 2017. Titled okay., the album features 11 tracks that span a length of 36 minutes.
I first heard of As It Is in December of 2015. I was finishing up my first semester of college and desperately trying to study for finals. I found the band through lead vocalist Patty Walter’s YouTube covers and decided to give them a go. I wasn’t disappointed at all, and I listened to the song “Dial Tones” so much throughout the month and into the following spring semester that it became one of my top-played songs of 2016.
So, how does the second album stack up to their first one?
okay. is an album filled with energy and raw emotion. Many of the songs (such as “Hey Rachel” and “Austen”) are inspired by real people or real events that the members of the band experienced. The lyrics in okay. shine regardless of the music that back them (and the music is fantastic). This album is a testament to the idea that pop-punk—and alternative music in general—has some of the strongest songwriting in the music industry right now.
Some takeways from okay.:
-Holy crap, “Pretty Little Distance” is addicting. It was released in October 2016 as a single and I honestly haven’t stopped listening to it since. On warmer days I roll down all the windows in my car and play this song. My friends might be a little tired of it because I play it so much, honestly.
-The title track, “Okay,” is a must-listen. Seriously. Trust me on this.
-“Hey Rachel” was written mostly by Walters, about his sister Rachel and her struggles with mental illness. It might be one of my favorite songs on the album, because the emotion is evident and the lyrics are ridiculously catchy.
-“No Way Out” is one of the heavier songs on the record. The vocals from Patty Walters and Ben Langford-Biss are terrific as heck. End of story.
-Boy oh boy, I’m in love with “Still Remembering”. My taste in music is pretty eclectic but I love pretty much anything even resembling an acoustic song. This was the perfect song to end okay. with.
“We all as people and individuals go through patches where we aren’t okay,” Walters told Alternative Press. “That is very much the kind of instability of life: We’re okay for a while, and then we aren’t.”
As a college kid, it’s refreshing to hear that it’s okay to not be okay. We struggle constantly with not knowing what we’re doing, socially or academically. We’re in this incredibly stressful stage of life, and it can often take its toll. Many people I know have mental illnesses or things that hinder them from being “okay”. Knowing that there’s musicians that identify with this and use their voice and personal experiences to assure us that we’re fine is amazing.
So does okay. live up to Never Happy, Ever After? Absolutely. And then some. As a college student, and as a person, I highly recommend this album to anyone who will listen. As It Is deserves more attention for the awesome music they’re making, and I really hope they get it.
I can’t wait to see how far this album goes… Maybe even a U.S. tour? If so, I’ll be waiting for the Atlanta date. (Somewhat impatiently.)
You can check out the Twitter page for As Is Is here and their Facebook page here. The album is available to stream now.
