Red – Neveragain (reviewed by Dave Franklin)

It would take a better man than me to point to exactly the place on the musical map where the triple sonic tides of emo angst, punk energy, and alternative rock outsiderness meet, mingle, and meld, but wherever that is, you will find Neveragain going about their business.

And their business is delivering anthemic and aggressive slices of music that tick many boxes for those of you interested in not only where rock and roll, for want of a better term, has been but, more importantly, where it is headed.

So, what you get with Red is a song that ticks all the right boxes and includes all the sonic building blocks that have made the genre great and destined to survive. Not just survive but evolve, move with the times, and stay relevant.

Elements such as consummate and kick-ass backbeats, a powerhouse engine room that carries the listener along with the sonic flow. Guitars that can blend melody and rhythm into effortless and effective riffs. Vocals that deftly combine weight and angst so that the lyrics are conveyed with the right amount of world-weariness and also power and poignancy.

Some might argue that rock music found its perfect form many decades ago. Red suggests that this process of finding exactly what rock is, and indeed what it can be, has only just begun.