New Found Glory - Not without a fight

New Found Glory's history is interesting to look at. Eternal outsiders of pop-punk in the years 2000 behind Blink-182 and Green Day, the band has all the same known how to consolidate its third place with albums that become genre's classics, 'New Found Glory' (2000) and 'Sticks and stones' (2002). Whereas their popularity didn't cease growing, the next albums saw their credibility going the other way. When Green Day moves away from their peers to mix with the U2 and other Colplay and that Blink passes on, New Found Glory has the golden mean to get onto the first step of the podium but trips over it with 'Coming home', stressing more on the "pop" of "pop-punk" than its predecessors, even giving a cheesy hint to certain compositions of the record. The band quickly realizes that their "new found maturity" scares a big part of their audience off and is hardly workable live. While many already see it dead and buried, the phoenix comes back to life two years later and, to everyone's surprise, by means of the hardcore scene. A huge buzz comes with the announcement of a new EP's release (and of an album from their hardcore side-project, International Superheroes Of Hardcore) on the label Bridge Nine, home of Have Heart and consorts, more mosh than pogo to the core. Nice without being exceptional, it restores the Florida five-piece's image that gets back in shape, regains punch and begins touring with heavier bands. Thus, we have the feeling that New Found Glory had, maybe for the first time of their existence, something to prove with this sixth full-length.

'Right where we left off', the opening song, is the one "that says the most about the band today", according guitarist Chad Gilbert. The first words are quite evocative, resuming the album's title: "You can't get rid of me that easy, no / Not without a fight". New Found Glory are definitely back, a bone to pick in order to regain their place. The riff is insistent, the punch and the rhythm changes remind of 'Catalyst'. The chorus yet lacks energy and it's the more mid-tempo 'Don't let her pull you down' that really launches the album. The verses are very soft but the chorus is totally poppy hardcore, Jordan Pundik's vocals are faultlessly carried out, still just as nasal and recognizable, while Chad, Steve and Ian find their word to say in the easy yet lively back vocals against a background of jerky guitars.
The first highlight and probably the album's best track is the single 'Listen to your friends' that inevitably calls to mind the band's biggest hit, the "will-never-go-out" 'My friends over you'. 'Listen to your friends' has it all: it is simple, catchy, the chorus is easy to remember and to chant and the lyrics form a story, unusual thing with New Found Glory. It's just super-effective and the hook right before the chorus is quite simply excellent. Other tracks are perfect to bob your head while playing air guitar, like 'Truck stop blues' (that Max Bemis of Say Anything would call the "obligatory song about being on the road and missing someone") or '47' that has an undeniable instrumental quality and in which Cyrus Bolooki expends all his energy behind his drum set, giving tempo to the whole song. "I called you 46 times / And you answered on the 47th". Real 'Stick and stones' era New Found Glory. As for 'Tangled up', it distinguishes itself by the double voice on the chorus which puts new life into the singing and reminds the best moments of 'Coming home'. The inevitable guest vocals by the irresistible Paramore's Hayley Williams (Chad's girlfriend) is hardly noticeable without being informed.
If the theme of fight is omnipresent around the album (title, cover, promo pictures, video in an Ultimate Fighting cage), the lyrics' topics stay timeless and very NFG-esque: girls, friendship and broken hearts. However, whereas 'Coming home' saw the five musicians growing up, 'Not without a fight' shows them grown up. 'Heartless at best' features a greater maturity in its lyrics and originiality in its melancholic melody and the presence of an acoustic guitar. In the same way, 'This isn't you' is neither an anthem for the crowds, nor an intimist ballad, just a simple and brilliantly executed song. The soft break revives the track that ends on a superimposition of vocals.

Unfortunately, the album has some small slackenings. Although the Floridians' hardcore roots are more felt on this record, they remain concealed in short breakdowns or simple gang vocals. A little like on the 'Tip of the iceberg' EP, those more straightforward songs are lacking some consistency. 'I'll never love again' would have needed more speed with its hardcore tempo (the intro will bring the most nostalgic back to The Movielife's 'Jamestown') and Chad's screams. 'Such a mess' has a heavier rhythmic, big Four Year Strong-like riffs and a really heavy drumroll graded for the pit. The formula works without necessarily doing brilliantly, here again, something is missing, especially on the end and its breakdown a little empty. 'Reasons', somewhere between the acoustic ballad and the typical pop-punk song, lacks some energy too and surprises by its guitar solo as closure. Finally, the album's last track, 'Don't let this be the end', is weaker than the songs preceding it and only really attracts the attention at its very end, the chorus and its subdued back vocals giving way to the band's nice in unison vocals that we would we would like to see last longer.
(It is worth noting that the Japanese b-side 'I'm the fool' deserves to be downloaded.)

'Not without a fight' has the energy of 'Stick and stones' and the strong songwriting of 'Coming home' but the mix is sometimes tricky as the maturity isn't really what made the success of their first albums, for which New Found Glory try to strive with this one. This opus is more uptempo, the rhythms imposed by Chad Gilbert and Steve Klein's guitars more jerky and the songs shorter and made for being sung in unison. But there aren't enough simple and fun tracks going straight to the point like 'Listen to my friends'. The record sometimes lacks consistance, notably on the end, and won't bring the five-piece to its 'My friends over you' years' popularity.
There is no doubt that it will yet make the diversified crowds the band unites sing, from the old-school punks to the typical scene boys and girls or the hardcore kids ready to have a bone to pick in the pit. New Found Glory are certainly not virtuosos but they are able to make a stadium scream all together on their catchy and easily memorizable choruses. And in the end it is what they looked for with this "revival" album (Chad describes it as "the first record of New Found Glory's second chapter of being a band", even if we are many to rather think of 'Catalyst'), being able to rock out on stage while making their audience move, which was too often impossible with the songs of 'Coming home'. This mission is successful, this album is live-sized from end to end. It's their friend Mark Hoppus of Blink-182 who, at the production, knew how to choreograph the whole and in particular, being a bassist himself, work the bass tones.
New Found Glory don't deliver us an innovative or phenomenal record here, but an effort full of life, envy and passion for what they do. Releasing quality albums, staying close to their fans and offering one of the best live shows all styles taken together, the band deserves its popularity beyond its genre. In a period where the new neon powerpop bands in every way similar are flocking on MySpace in hundreds, better turn to safe bets. New Found Glory have always belonged to them and have this capacity to stay the same over the years without going out. They manage to revitalize themselves without losing the essence of the wild youngs they were ten years ago. As announce the ads for the album, "the indisputed heavyweight champions of pop-punk are back and ready to reclaim their crown".

3.5/5

Recommanded if you like:
The Movielife, Set Your Goals, Four Year Strong
Check also:
Broadway Calls, Bangarang!, Living With Lions

www.myspace.com/newfoundglory
(Epitaph, 2009)