REVIEW: As It Is - As It Is

After years defined by burnout, fractured identity and the weight of expectation, Patty Walters stepped away from music entirely, only to rediscover the part of himself he thought he had lost. That reconnection, first with himself and then with Ben Langford‑Biss, Ali Testo and Patrick Foley, lit the fuse for AS IT IS choosing to exist again on their own terms. What follows is not nostalgia, but a reclamation. It is four brothers rebuilding the thing that once saved them, clawing their way back to the spark that first pulled them into a room thirteen years ago and finally letting it save them again.

The album lunges forward with ⁠I’m So Alive!, signalling the start of a more upbeat, positive vibe to the band, but with lyrics that contradict a little more with each line.  It is the epitome of a pop punk song, complete with saxophone and choir backing vocals. A bold but impressive opener. AS IT IS at their most stark and unfiltered comes through via ⁠Ruin My Life feat. Murray Macleod from THE XCERTS. A track built on raw storytelling, pulling every buried truth to the surface with a clarity that stings and tracing the bruises of identity, pressure and emotional collapse without flinching. Musically, it leans into the band’s love of earnest, stage commanding rock, letting each line land with the weight of lived experience. From this emerges a portrait of reckoning in real time, a moment where survival becomes self‑recognition. 

Do You Remember? is their most nostalgic and self‑mythologising track yet. Co‑written with Max Helyer of YOU ME AT SIX and penned as a candid look back at fourteen years defined by chaos, camaraderie, and the kind of hard‑won connection that only comes from weathering every high and low together, the track features choruses of voices asking the key question, “We fucked it up and called it art - do you remember?” backed by heavy pop punk guitars and energetic drums. Confronting the ever worsening political climate in vocalist Patty Walters' home country, Live, Laugh, Love Los Angeles is a track that unpacks Patty’s relationship with the USA and having to watch from afar as tensions rise, where “you’ve got no cash for the ambulance” and “you can’t afford to live, you can’t afford to die”.  It’s a track infused with their bright riffs and even an unexpected saxophone. As the band have clearly stated themselves alongside the release of the single - fuck fascism. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYVhAG0LmK8

Sitting on the album as one of the most quietly devastating tracks is Marilyn. The band describe it as a song about recognising how a near‑stranger’s goodness can shape you early on, and how hindsight sharpens that impact. That meaning threads itself through the track’s warm, melodic foundations, where Patty Walters leans into a gentler vulnerability. What emerges is a reflective portrait of growth, built on memory, gratitude and the belief that people never truly disappear while their values live on in those they’ve touched. ⁠Watching the World Go Bye presents itself as a love song, with the expected ups and downs with Patty stating “I don’t wanna leave the world behind, unless you do”. Throughout the album, AS IT IS carve out moments of reckoning, drawing a hard line between who they were and who they refuse to be anymore. Lose Your Way & Find Yourself becomes the point where healing stops being hypothetical and turns into a daily choice. Its slow‑burn intensity reflects the year of work, therapy and reconnection behind it, each lyric landing like a step toward clarity. It’s catharsis with teeth, the sound of a band rebuilding themselves from the inside out. 

Last at the Party pulls the tempo down in an expected, but still gutting way. Echoing the mood of Still Remembering from okay, it sketches someone clinging to any scrap of social contact just to avoid the silence waiting at home, desperate not to be “the last at the party.” Turn to Dust snaps back to that earlier upbeat, self‑sabotage energy, with Patty and Ben trading lines over gang vocals built for a live room; it’s the kind of track that’ll hit like a brick on stage, tears guaranteed. If I Ever Lost You circles back to the slower pulse, but lands even heavier. Patty’s verses trace the fallout of leaving behind a life and a love, while Ben’s entry cracks open the reality of the hiatus and the weight Patty was carrying; “I forgot where I was when I got the call from Dot, it’s a lot, needs to stop, can you save a life for an art?” It’s devastating, full stop. After the heartache from the previous track, ⁠Not Anymore delivers another blow, with just acoustic guitar and Patty’s voice; a simple, but poised. ⁠What If It All Works Out is the perfect ending to the album; defiant and apologetic, with Patty confessing he never stopped to ask the question “What if it all works out?”. The gang vocals throughout the track and the gentle drums, with the guitar, makes for a special combination. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebmqVypqzeQ

In choosing to make As It Is their self‑titled statement, the quartet cement exactly what this era represents. Not a reset, not a rewrite but a return to the truth that built them, sharpened now by experience, healing and a level of honesty they once had to bury just to survive. These songs carry the weight of who they were, the clarity of who they are, and the hope of who they might still become. It is connection without compromise, purpose without pressure, and joy without apology. It is the band choosing each other, their art and themselves again. In doing so, they have created a record that feels less like a comeback and more like a homecoming. 

Score: 10/10

As It Is will be released on 17th July 2026 via FLG.

Words: Lou Viner-Flood

Photos: As It Is