Restoring Old Glory : New Found Glory looks to revive their old sound with new album, ‘Not Without a Fight’
Artist: New Found GloryAlbum: Not Without A FightGenre: Pop-punkSounds like: Blink-182, Sugarcult, Yellowcard85 Decibels
The pop-punk genre was rejuvenated by announcements that Blink182 is reuniting to tour and that Green Day’s ’21st Century Breakdown’ is marked for a May release. These two pop-punk goliaths have had special places in our generation’s hearts. We grew up listening to their lyrics, playing along with their power chords and mimicking their images.
It’s fitting that New Found Glory, a band that rode both Blink182’s and Green Day’s coattails to stardom in the early 2000s, is releasing a new album in the midst of the hype. To top it all off, ‘Not Without a Fight’ was produced by Blink182’s Mark Hoppus.
New Found Glory’s sixth studio album, the first to be released on Epitaph Records, is a record to prove to critics that the band can still record another ‘Sticks and Stones.’
The album’s first track, ‘Right Where We Left Off,’ aptly opens up with frontman Jordan Pundik calmly saying, ‘You can’t get rid of me that easily.’ Whether he’s speaking to an ex-girlfriend or the fans of our ever-changing music scene, the words ring true.
New Found Glory is doing its best to mimic what Green Day did with ‘American Idiot’ in 2004: attempt, one last time, to revitalize a staggering career. The song is classic New Found Glory formula — pick scraps, palm-muted power chords, pounding drums and an underlying guitar riff in the chorus — but the outcome is their best song since ‘My Friends Over You.’ The first single, ‘Listen To Your Friends,’ sounds like it could be a B-side on New Found Glory’s early self-titled album.
Every song tries to top the previous in catchiness. After a few spins it will be impossible to not be singing along with the choruses. The song structures are all similar and the lyrics all deal with ex-girlfriends, lust and disappointment. Despite this, New Found Glory understood that by going back to its roots, both musically and in production value, it could turn back the clock and recreate that early-2000 glory. It might not be ‘new’ anymore, but ‘Not Without a Fight’ is still a success.
Published on March 16, 2009 at 12:00 pm
