Tonight Alive - Limitless

When it comes to their latest musical offering, Tonight Alive are being fairly upfront with its sentiments. With an opening gambit like ‘To Be Free’, and an album title ‘Limitless’, it’d be difficult not to get their hints. Granted, the results of – whether realistically or metaphorically - casting away their restrictions are grandiose and, with tracks like ‘How Does It Feel’ and ‘Everywhere’, see the band climbing ever further towards the arenas that they’ve always aspired to reach.

But at times it feels a little overwrought, a little too cheesy, with some of Jenna McDougall’s lyrics sounding less comfortable than you might expect. The album’s opening half seems to boast the group’s more experimental side; it’s only when ‘How Does It Feel’ kicks in that the driven pop-infused punk they built their name upon rears it head. It’s a grand moment in the album, with McDougall sounding full of confidence. Its follow-up, ‘Waves’, continues that flow of confidence - a tailor-made lighters-in-the-air offering - and it’s in tracks like this that the band really reach a high.

There’s no doubting that Tonight Alive are being brave with their attempts on this record, but they haven’t quite hit the perfect balance between their past and future. While their hooks are huge, there are moments within ‘Limitless’ that seem too polished.