Album Review: Retrospect by Boxing Day

Boxing Day are a five piece pop punk band from Belgium who have been around since 2016. Influnced by pop punk giants like blink-182, The Wonder Years and Neck Deep, Boxing Day have gained a reputation for writing wonderfully catchy yet depressing songs. On Boxing Day of 2018 the band released a new two track single named Retrospect. Nick for Real Ghost Records sent me over a stream, convinced that I was going to love it. Did I?

The first song on the single is titled Whisper Like You Mean It. From the start of song I immediately get the impression that this song is going to be a bouncy pop punk track with a sadness about it. The opening guitars will get a crowd jumping up and down but there is a depressing tone to the sound that makes it feel quite bittersweet. When vocalist Monsi comes in, the song switches to a more intense style that ramps up the emotion in the song. Like all pop punk songs should do, the chorus is a big ear worm that will find a home inside your head in no time at all.

Up next is the single's title track, Retrospect. As you might expect from its title, the song is about looking back on your life and realising how certain events have shaped what was to come. This is more of a mature sounding pop punk and I dig it. It's making me think and feel something, something a genre such as this can sometimes struggle to do. It's a very restrained song that doesn't really explode into life like you might think it would, instead allowing its message to grab the listener.

This style of pop punk continues to get more and more popular. I've listened to fair amount of different bands in the genre and I have to say Boxing Day are among the best. There's a maturity in their songwriting that will attract older pop punk fans as well as youngsters just finding the genre. It certainly feels like Boxing Day could do some big things in their career.

Stream and download Retrospect here: https://boxingdaypoppunk.bandcamp.com/album/retrospect-ep

Like Boxing Day here: https://www.facebook.com/boxingdaypoppunk/

This review was written by Colin Clark.