Tired of Fighting – And Then Suddenly It Hits You
Tired of Fighting – And Then Suddenly It Hits You
Punkerton Records
Release Date: 17/04/2026
Review by Laura Barnes
8/10
As you may have noticed, the Pop-punk generation has grown up. Life has gotten harder, houses have gotten pricier, and problems can no longer be solved with a beer and a dick joke. The Pop-punk of the 2020s has a distinctly existential quality to it, where you’re more likely to find a Pop-punk song about a bereavement than a first date. Now that record labels have finished squeezing the genre for every penny it’s worth, bands are free to explore less marketable and more interesting avenues.
One such band is the Newcastle-upon-Tyne trio Tired of Fighitng. They fall towards the more Emo end of the Pop-punk spectrum, and I don’t mean emo in the sense of hair straighteners, eyeliner, and chatting up underage girls in a smoking shelter. When I say emo, I mean it in the truest sense of the word, in that these guys have a lot of emotions. And not just any emotions – nuanced emotions. With tasteful powerchords and thoughtful lyrics, Tired of Fighting walk us through the peaks and troughs of adulthood: ‘Castles’ details the desperate attempts to preserve a failing relationship; ‘Branches’ talks about the desire to feel alive (‘within reason’, of course) and ‘Nightdwellers’ ruminates on the melancholy that follows a boozy night. It isn’t all doom and gloom, though – there’s also the brilliantly hopeful ‘Just For Me’, which details the adventures of somebody’s karate-chopping grandaughter in Mexico and ends with a gospel inspired flourish. Delightful!
Through it all, frontman Nic Wood gives the sort of performance that makes you feel that he’s lived and breathed every word. His performance is especially compelling on the soaring ‘Out of the Woods’. This song is an absolute masterclass in Punk Rock storytelling, with a conclusion that is both heart-wrenching and cathartic. Wood sounds like a man about to break, a man pouring all his energy into staying alive for just one more day. This is the kind of songwriting and performance I would have liked to have seen more of, and hopefully on future albums, I will.
“And Suddenly It Hits You” concludes with the ‘Albatross’, a song that acts a kind of overture for the rest of the album. It’s an original and clever way of finishing an album, and tells me volumes about how much love and thought has been put into this release. Being vulnerable is so much harder than telling dick jokes and drinking beer, but for Tired of FIghting, the effort was absolutely worth it. When the next album comes out, I’ll be devouring it immediately.
TRACKLISTING:
01. Night Dwellers
02. Death Wish
03. Chocolate
04. Just For Me
05. Branches
06. Out of the Forest
07. Castles
08. Tired of Failing
09. Hollow
10. Albatross
LINKS:
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