New Found Glory

New Found Glory

Written by: PP on 23/12/2009 06:28:18

You'll hear New Found Glory fans argue to eternity which one is the best album; debut album "Nothing Gold Can Stay" or sophomore album "New Found Glory". The truth is the differences between the two are only cosmetic: the latter has slightly better, although still nicely raw production, and it doesn't contain any of the charming love-story movie samples preceding the songs like the debut. Strictly quality-wise, I don't think anyone will disagree that they are the two best New Found Glory albums and it's likely the band will never be able to top them unless they pull a Bad Religion out of the hat. If you've only heard albums like "Catalyst" and "Coming Home", and don't get what all the fuzz is about, then check out "New Found Glory", a genre-defining pop punk album that influenced an entire generation of young folks like this one. It's just brilliant.

Every song on "New Found Glory" is about girls, but so what? There's no other band able to write such heart-melting and real tracks about women as those on this album. Forget your emo bands, New Found Glory is the one you can relate to most when it comes to a break up, missing a girl, or falling in love. They're the real deal, and if you were like me, in high school when these songs were released, you know how closely every word matched to the realities you faced back then. Lines like "I can't dream anymore since you left / I miss you singing me to sleep" ("Dressed To Kill"), "You've gotta watch out for the younger ones / They'll tightly wrap you around their fingers / And brag to all their friends / It's nothing but a game to them" ("Boy Crazy"), or my personal favorite quote that I still scream from the top of my lungs today when I hear it:

The needle on my record player has been wearing thin / this record has been playing since the day you've been with him / No more long rides home / no more of your station / I didn't like it anyways / Remember the time we wrote our names upon the wall? / Remember the time we realized "Thriller" was our favorite song?"

Shakespeare fucking LOVES these emo poems.

The reason why both "Nothing Gold Can Stay" and "New Found Glory" are so highly regarded is because on these two albums, the band nailed it in all departments. The production is perfect, leaving the melodic hardcore tuned guitars buzzing and rough around the edges, while keeping the melody lines perfectly intact. The tracks are fast enough to pull in the punk crowd, but not too fast to push away the people who like their catchy melodies. You know the term infectious that I use in so many of my reviews? New Found Glory pretty much invented that term on these two albums. But most importantly, singer Jordan Pundik puts up one of the most passionate vocal performances in music history without having to resort to screaming, yelling or anything else than his usual nasal vocal style, cementing him as the key vocalist in pop punk for the years to come. You can really tell what he's singing about comes from the heart, which can probably be attributed that the band was barely out of high school when they wrote these songs, but either way, you can't get around the fact that he's doing a sublime job on the record. The way his vocal harmonies match and/or contrast the guitars is nothing short of awe-inspiring.

Is there a bad song on "New Found Glory". Hell no. Is it full of classics that helped shape the genre? You know why all those modern pop punk bands are around? They listened to Jordan on "New Found Glory" and realized they HAVE to start a band. They screamed along to a line like "the needle on my record player has been wearing thin".... and the rest is history. If there's only one pop punk album you're gonna own - and every music fan should (even you metalheads, EW and co), make it either this one or "Nothing Gold Can Stay".

9

Download: Dressed To Kill, Hit Or Miss, Boy Crazy, Better Off Dead
For the fans of: Fireworks, Farewell, You Me At Six, Amber Pacific
Listen: Myspace

Release date 26.09.2000
Drive-Thru Records

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