Neckscars are a punk rock band from New York, featuring members of Gameday Regulars. Unhinged is their second album, released via Engineer Records (UK) and Sell The Heart Records (US). It follows various splits and EPs, as well as debut album Don’t Panic, which was released back in 2021 via the same labels. I’d not checked out Neckscars prior to receiving a vinyl copy of Unhinged for review (thanks to Dave at Engineer!), despite having them on the list of “bands to check out” that I keep partially in Notes on my phone, and partially in my head. Never the twain shall meet. It’s a fairly ludicrous list, with no particular order to it; somewhat bizarre as I will anally arrange my record collection alphabetically by band and chronologically by release date. Anyway, said list gets randomly delved into on bus journeys or whatever. “What does this have to do with the review?” I hear a tiny voice cry. Absolutely fuck all, mate.
Anyway. I’ve been listening to this LP quite a lot. The first couple of listens, I thought it was pretty cool, but maybe nowt to write home about. Subsequent listens have seen this turn into a real grower, up to the point of becoming in my mind one of the better releases from 2025. I feel like it has a fair amount to offer to both punk rock veterans such as myself, having had my earliest flirtations with punk rock back in 1989/90 or so, as well as relative young ‘uns (who realistically probably aren’t that young really – but they’re into what I see see as “all these new bands” that have realistically been kickin’ it for a while). What I probably mean to say is that I still find new stuff that’s relevant, and in my opinion, exciting, even though I’m rapidly accelerating toward 49 years of age; I see myself differently from those “original punks” that think nothing of any note has happened since 1982 apart from the occasional anniversary tour by GBH or whatever, and they are all elderly racists now, so who even the fuck cares?
The first thing that comes to mind on listening to Unhinged is a masterful mix of H2O when they were more of a fun NYHC band (around Thicker Than Water and Faster Than The World kind of time) and Face to Face. This comes with the caveat that I always found Face to Face to be kind of unmemorable despite clearly being really great musicians; there was always something lacking to me – nothing stood out. They continue to be one of those bands that I’m “supposed” to like, but in reality make me want to lapse into a coma. But… If you strip out the extended boring bits, but keep the style and tempo, and shove in the pep and bounce of those H2O albums, then you start to get this nicely rounded sound that’s structurally sound, and also has this big kinda “rock” sound that you got on those first couple of Foo Fighters albums.
Moving on to what I no doubt ridiculously view as “new bands”, let’s initially head back to the early/mid-2000s when we saw a whole raft of bands emerging that were pushing the envelope of combining melodic hardcore with a kind of “big rock” kind of dynamism; a period that saw the emergence of some really great bands such as The Loved Ones and Nothington for example, as well as the dramatic stylistic shift that Hot Water Music underwent (much to their detriment in my apparently unpopular, but nevertheless correct opinion). It also saw the dawn of a bunch of grindingly tedious and soul destroyingly lacklustre acts such as The Menzingers and The Flatliners, both of which are (to my mind) enduringlyand bafflingly popular – it’s the kind of shit that’s best described as whatever the equivalent of landfill indie is. I draw parrallels to the kind of dross cynically marketed at people that say “I listen to anything, me” when asked what type of music they’re into. Please do bear with me, there’s a point to this, I promise. There was an album at that point in time that seemingly bridged all of this: Sink or Swim, the debut album by The Gaslight Anthem. Although the rest of their output was worthy only of being flushed down the bog and is utterly forgettable, I’ll still argue til the cows come home that Sink or Swim is fucking great. In fact I’d plop Unhinged right there into that category.
Let’s leap forwards another few years or whatever, to what I class as “young people’s music”. Yes, I know, I’m bloody awful, aren’t I? Yep, probably long-winded too. So yeah, the 2010s and beyond. A bit of a weird period, where independent music and record labels were dying on their arses for many reasons, but we were seeing the emergence of some great bands like Joyce Manor, Pup and Red City Radio for example, just to chuck a couple of names out there. Sadly there’s also been a new wave of inexplicably popular bands enjoying success Yes, I’m looking at you, Spanish Love Songs and Prince Daddy and the Hyena. I suppose again, I’m talking in terms of really great bands playing comparatively second fiddle to utter garbage. Not to mention the perpetual unflushable turds (The Flatliners and The Menzingers) still making themselves ever-present, and making me want to throw up in my mouth.
I think what I’m trying to get at here in a poorly explained way, is that Unhinged by Neckscars could be one of those albums you get every decade or so that provides a real cross-over point between what I would view as two polarised sections of fanbase. It’s a solid fucking album with enough credibility to please people with their heads screwed on the right way as well as being accessible enough to worm it’s way into the psyche of people that maybe aren’t discovering music that’s a bit more of a, shall we say, “challenging listen”? The musicianship is tight. The vocal feels honest in a sub-genre where lip-service is often the norm. Stylistically speaking, whilst the wheel isn’t being reinvented here, we have an ultimately pleasing rehash of ideas of various vintages masterfully crafted together in a way that feels both contemporary and nostalgic at the same time. Think Ways Away meets Spanish Love Songs without the shit bits, and we’re just about in the right zone.
Tony of Nurgle rating: 9/10
You can pick this up in the UK from Engineer Records or in the US from Sell the Heart Records on a choice of sky blue or golden wheat 180g coloured vinyl.
