Album review: As December Falls – Join The Club

Their band name might be lifted from the heart of winter, but As December Falls make music for when the sun is high in the sky. Plumbing into the same kind of springily indomitable pop-punk as early Paramore and We Are In The In Crowd, with a little more modernity, a pinch of extra alt.rock grit, the Nottingham collective intoxicate with simplicity – as this genre’s finest acts tend to do.

Where 2019’s self-titled debut was a DIY stroke of defiance in the face of an apparently disinterested industry, and 2021’s Happier bore the hallmarks of a band still building confidence, third album Join The Club feels like the crest of a wave: attitude, aptitude and belief that their songs will see thousands of fans rocking along coming together in a perfect storm.

The gouging guitars and Bethany Hunter’s joyously angsty vocals on the opening title-track feel like a literal invitation to those legions of fans-to-be. Honey wraps its-sugar-loaded tendrils around your heart and squeezes. Carousel feels like the first showcase for this record’s heavier side, but the crunchy guitars and thumping drums are most effective for throwing the central, surging energy into relief: more evocative of the thrill of amping-up on the edge of the pit than the violence of diving in.

Brilliantly, the juggernaut momentum, breathless emotion and urgent desire to find new ways to express themselves continues for a further eight tracks. It’s there in the jaunty swagger and claustrophobic panic of Mayday, in the aching melodrama of I Can’t Sleep, in the tingling acoustic of Home and in the percussive heartbeat of Alive.

Three albums in, some may think they’ve already seen what these guys have to offer, but by the time the beauty and dynamism of whirlwind closer Tear It Out drops curtain, it’s clear that this is As December Falls’ arrival. And they could be huge.

Verdict: 4/5

For fans of: We Are The In Crowd, Paramore, Tonight Alive

Join The Club is out now via InGrooves