As It Is – As It Is
Release Date: 17th July 2026
Label: FLG
It’s been eight years since the original members of As It Is sat down in a room and created music together. After almost a decade of waiting, fans will be expecting big things from the band’s highly-anticipated reunion and new self-titled album, As It Is.
Despite tricky line-up changes and personal struggles, singer Patty Walters, guitarist Ben Biss, bassist Ali Testo and drummer Patrick Foley have come back together in the hopes they can reignite their spark, both as friends and as bandmates, with a whole new bunch of pop-punk tunes.
Things get off to a flying start with album opener ‘I’m So Alive’. The title speaks for itself; it really does feel like this Brighton-based foursome have breathed new life into their music. It’s a fresh, vibrant, summery track that has our heads bopping and toes tapping right from the off.
The close-knit bond between the band members is something fans fell in love with from day one, with Patty’s YouTube channel giving us all a glimpse into the brotherhood they shared.
It feels like this all-important connection is back in full force with the new release. Friendship is the common thread that runs through the album, with ‘Do You Remember?’ taking us on a trip down memory lane to the good old days and ‘Marilyn’ giving us all a chance to reminisce about those wild teenage years.
The band members’ relationship is explored most openly in ‘Lose Your Way & Find Yourself’. It’s the first song they wrote together after their hiatus and is all about asking for help, accepting your mistakes and finding your way back to yourself with the support of your loved ones. Lyrically – “I never felt so brave, that January day I asked for help / You’ll never be okay, until you lose your way and you find yourself” – it feels like As It Is have shed their skin, wiped the slate clean, and are all the better for it.
We do take a diversion from the ‘bromance’ theme with the politically-driven ‘Live, Laugh, Love, Los Angeles’, an homage to Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Born in the USA’ which explores Patty’s connection with his home country and the issues that plague it, from gun violence to wealth inequality.
Things do trail off a little in the album’s second half, leaving us hungry for some more ‘oomph’ as we head towards the finish line. However, things don’t always have to go at one-hundred miles per hour, as is demonstrated in ‘Not Anymore’, a stripped-back track that sounds like it was recorded in Patty’s bedroom, taking fans all the way back to the early days.
Many artists understand that, right now, we’re living in turbulent, divisive and, frankly, bleak times and the last thing we need is more doom and gloom. We need songs like album closer ‘What If It All Works Out’ to give us a sense of hope.
When things feel dark, we need someone in our corner, encouraging us to believe it can get better and that we’re not in this alone. We need words like: “When everything is burning, you can try to enjoy the heat / And if everyone is hurting, at least it’s not just me.” We need bands like As It Is, and we need albums like this.