Tracklist:-
1. Beering
2. Florida
3. Forever Sick
4. What Matters Most
5. Nothing But Net
I'm still searching for a modern day pop-punk band that's as good as early New Found Glory of Divit. Hopefully, Swindon four-piece As The Sun Sleeps will be that band. They formed back in 2013 and released their debut EP "Never Stars" last January. Exactly a years on and after countless live shows, they're at it again with "As Good As Gold", which was only officially released ten days ago.
The impressions are very good as debut song Beering begins. Melodic riffs and clean, British-accent vocals remind me of Me Vs Hero (which is not bad thing). The song itself is about the embarrassment that comes with excessive drinking, which is quite apart for a pop-punk really. It’s certainly catchy. A song with the title Florida can only be sickly-sweet and it sure starts that way. An upbeat tempo takes the lead and As The Sun Sleeps prefer to make in impact without letting things go on for too long. Playing those live shows has clearly helped them to nail their songwriting and the sing-alongs are great here. Why does Forever Sick remind me of Forever The Sickest Kids! I never really got into that band but there’s no danger of that here. This is much more memorable and while pop-punk is a tried and tested formula nowadays, I think it’s hard to do it well. As The Sun Sleeps are very nearly there in my opinion. They’ve written the perfect pop-punk ballad of sorts on What Matters Most. There’s no point me saying anything else, you should just listen for yourself. EP closer Nothing But Net makes use of some subtle off-kilter time signatures to show that these guys aren’t content with just sticking to a formula. It’s filled with great musicianship and a oft missed nostalgia. They’ve got room to grow and time to develop their song-craft further but they’re well on their way. I think I’ve found a serious contender in my pop-punk search.
"As Good As Gold" isn't streaming on their bandcamp page unfortunately, but you can stream it via all of the other usual platforms.
You can keep up date with future live shows via their Facebook page here - https://www.facebook.com/asthesunsleeps/