New Found Glory :: "Not Without a Fight"

When I think about high school (watch out, I’m about to date myself), one of the bands that immediately starts playing in the background of those scenes is New Found Glory. Pop punk was huge for me back then and with bands like Green Day, Blink 182, Alkaline Trio, New Found Glory, Sum 41 and Jimmy Eat World dominating the genre at the time, it was hard to avoid that infectious poppy sound infused with the fast-paced tempo of punk.

New Found Glory’s second and third albums, New Found Glory (2000) and Sticks and Stones (2002) were and still are my favorites of the band, but those were released years ago. I wasn’t a huge fan of their next two albums (Catalyst and Coming Home, respectively) so their most recent release, this year’s Not Without a Fight, was met with skeptical ears.

Not Without a Fight sees New Found Glory experimenting with a much bigger sound with the help of producer (and expert on radio-friendly pop-punk) Mark Hoppus of Blink 182. Though I have much love for Blink 182 and New Found Glory because of the memories they bring on, I think Not Without a Fight lacks greatly what New Found Glory and Sticks and Stone did so well.

“Don’t Let Her Pull You Down” starts off with some splash cymbal crashes that immediately give the listener the hint that this track is going to be fast-paced and possibly mosh-worthy. The heavy muffled guitar and the wah-wah’d melody proves it while lead singer Jordan Pundik’s nasally voice comes in actually not so nasally. The gang vocals add a nice little fist-pump affect in the chorus, which is pretty catchy and a great choice for the album’s second single.

The album’s first single, “Listen to Your Friends,” is pretty rocking as well. There are big guitars and catchy melodies all over the place. The lyrics pretty much tell of all those times that your friends knew better than you but you were too big-headed to listen! There’s another set of gang vocals in this song which makes me think that NFG went a little gang vocal crazy. Gang vocals are great though, so I’m not complaining. Perhaps it’s their attempt to get the listener (and crowd at shows) more into the song. The high energy of the song is sufficient, but NFG thought the gang vocals were necessary. I’m not quite sure what I think about that.

“Tangled Up” featuring Hayley Williams (of Paramore) is another high energy song on Not Without a Fight with big guitars and vocal melodies. Though the song is still high energy, the song has a bit of a slower pace. Unfortunately, Williams’ voice is barely heard, but what is heard compliments Pundik’s voice well. The way they harmonize sounds great and I would have loved to hear a lot more of her in this track! The song is about being so hopelessly in love with someone. As Pundik sings, “Oh, I/Should have never laid eyes on you/Now I’m/Tangled up, what can I do?” Well, if anyone should know it’s Chad Gilbert, lead guitarist of New Found Glory who is actually dating Williams!

One of the catchiest (yet borderline annoying) hooks on the album has got to be in “I’ll Never Love Again” and you hear it as soon as the song starts. It helps that the big guitars and drums come in to draw a bit of attention away. The song is kinda sweet but cheesy, as Pundik sings “I can’t get to you/I swear, I tried/If I can’t get to you/I’ll never love again.” The bridge is pretty bad ass because the drums seem to get bigger and the muffled guitars seem to get harder.

Overall, Not Without a Fight is definitely New Found Glory’s attempt to give a big middle finger to all those who think that pop punk is dead (check his shirt in the video for “Don’t Let Her Pull You Down”) after Coming Home saw the band take on a different direction. I’m into the fact that at least they’re willing to admit that they are in the pop punk genre, because many people will argue that it’s a shitty style of music. I, for one, think it’s great for those times when you want some fast-paced and catchy, melodious music to sing along to. The band have obviously grown up, but have they grown too much? NFG used to sing about choosing their friends over their girls and how some girls are crazy but now they’re in love, tangled up and will never love again. Aside from that, they’ve added a little more rocking to the pop punk formula and were able to succeed in making a good album, but in my opinion, it’s all about those elementary pop punk records from the early 2000’s.

Other Highlights:
“Truck Stop Blues”
“Such a Mess”
“Reasons”

Buy the album at our record store on Amazon

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