Album Review: Veara - 'Growing Up Is Killing Me'

This album, yet again, sees Veara delve into catchy pop sounds while ensuring they do not take it too far. The band establishes this great balance by maintaining the ever-present punk vibe that is central to their style.

Starter, ‘Next Stop… Everywhere’, is fast-moving and full of energy, and displays the aformentioned balance well. There is a sense of urgency during the song, much like in music from bands like Four Year Strong, and this seems to communicate that there is much to come. If, in fact, this is the band's intent, it is an appropriate thing to do because there certainly is much to come. ‘Growing Up Is Killing Me’ is jam-packed with 12 heavily involved tracks.

‘The Worst Part Of You’ is one big punk sing-a-long, with plenty of "woahs" and chants that maintains a moderately fast pace. As with most of their songs, Veara keep things fairly short, and thankfully do not over repeat themselves. Each hook is given just the right amount of shining time.

Perhaps in an attempt to break from their uniformity, Veara explore a new sound, still pretty similar however, in ‘Between Friends And A Hard Place’. This similarity though, prevents the slight twist from sounding out of place. It’s a little bit darker in a way, think of Hawthorne Heights or older Saves the Day songs like ‘At Your Funeral’. This is also carried over into the next track, ‘Don’t Call Me Lucky (feat. Shane Told)’. The song is, without doubt, one of the standouts from the album, and Told's part in it only adds to the effect.

Veara wrap it up with a deceptively starting track called ‘The World Won’t Wait’. It appears the song is considerably slower in relation to the rest of the album when a simple electric guitar line kicks it off before the signature energy returns.

A solid release if nothing else.

A very consistent album that is more consistent than previous releases from the band. Disregarding the obvious uniformity in many of Veara’s songs, ‘Growing Up Is Killing Me’ takes them a fair few steps forward.

1. Next Stop…Everywhere

2. The Worst Part Of You

3. None Of The Above

4. Growing Up Is Killing Me (feat. Dan Campbell)

5. Between Friends And A Hard Place

6. Don’t Call Me Lucky (feat. Shane Told)

7. Lens Of Truth

8. Paralysis By Analysis

9. Separate Ways

10. Fake Blood (feat. Andrew DeNeef)

11. No More Secrets

12. The World Won’t Wait