The first song on the album, “Guiding Light” is one of many anthemic rockers on the album:With the new day comes a rising, don’t waste a moment, cross the horizon. With the new day you’re standing next to me. Feel the fire, burning brighter, in the morning I’ll be rising. With the new day, you’re standing next to me. The Guiding Light

Their COVID-19 experience is reflected in their song, “Lockdown.” 

Foster said he was bothered by “the high minded artistes refusing outright any reference to lockdown, quarantine, or isolation. I almost forgot you didn’t experience it. We’ve all lived through this period. It’s affected us all, and ‘Lockdown’ is our quasi serious take on it.”

The album takes a topical turn with “Hands Up Don’t Shoot,” based on the tragic death of Michael Brown, an 18-year-old Black man fatally shot by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri in 2014. 

“The BLM protests highlighted the racial inequality still running through the fabric of our societies,” Foster said. “Reading about the movement in 2020, it reminded me of the Michael Brown shooting in 2014. In them six years in between, can we say enough has been done to avoid these tragedies? I don’t have the solution, but it motivated me to tell his story in a song, to shed a light on the prejudices many people still face today.”

Blue murder on the street, a policeman shot him down

Kneed him in the neck, ten wise men stood around

Driving home from work to see his wife and kids

Until he got pulled over for the colour of his skin

The past stays present, Jesus died for our sins

Or did he?

They put a bullet in his head

Claiming self defence

The Borderland’s ballads include “Carry the Torch” and “My Sweet Love.”

For the album’s 12th and final song, “The Debatable Land,” the band reflects on its Carlisle roots. As Foster explained, “When Napoleon’s general Lallemaud went to scout out a safe haven in New Orleans after Waterloo he left straight away claiming ‘Here the devil is damned.’ And do we know that feeling?! After all, this is The Debatable Land, an anarchic no-man’s land between Scotland and England, too dangerous for either country to take control of. Its rich history of Border Reiver clans, family politics, farming, preservation and battle lives on in all of us Hardwickes. That ought to be celebrated; it’s our hometown, our neck of the woods, and it always draws us back to the border.”

We cross the fields in silence where darkness makes its keep

and souls are lost into a world of burning effigies

I long for the victory of your morning grace

‘less you’re prepared to break the law you’ll dig an early grave

…

you know you robbed the best of me, made me feel like a refugee

is love worth this poverty till the dawn?

…

the debatable land, the debatable land

it’s in our hands, the debatable land

Get Ready to Rock! said in its review of The Borderland, “This is a cracking, feel good album that is completely new and yet lulls you into a sense of familiarity, possibly because of some of the influences that have clearly helped developed their unique style. I know it’s good when I’m not even halfway through the album, and I’d already added it to my top 10 albums of the year – what a debut, buckle up and enjoy the circus ride!”

In its review of the album, The Rebirth Of Cool wrote, “ … how about an album of songs that jumps right out of the 80’s rock scene and owes as much to Born In the USA Springsteen, Hot House Flowers and The Waterboys as it does to current artists such as Sam Fender, Blossoms, Catfish and the Bottlemen? 

“… The Borderland is an assured debut album as you will hear in many a while, it’s also one that will surprise you almost at every turn.”