Spring Break
New Found Glory need a new found song topic
2 out of 5 stars
Becky Radolf
Issue date: 3/19/09 Section: Focus
New Found Glory has a message for everyone: girls suck. The band returned to the pop-punk/emo scene on March 10 with its sixth album "Not Without A Fight," produced by Mark Hoppus from Blink-182. There's an occasional catchy chorus and clever metaphor thrown into the tracks by lead singer Jordan Pundik, but the album mostly just adds 12 more woman-hating songs to the already emotional world of radio-worthy punk.
There comes a point where the listener might expect Pundik to stop everything and yell, "Boys have feelings, too, OK?!" Instead, he chooses to moan tacky and repetitive verses that express his hatred for the she-devil who broke his heart.
The album opens with the song "Right Where We Left Off," giving the listener an immediate sense of where this album is going, as Pundik yells about his fight with a girl. Generally, he's either figuring out that the girl he loves is a train wreck, desperately calling her dozens of times, or stuck in a relationship from hell with her. Either way, he makes her sound like a real piece of work.
One of the better songs on the album is "Heartless at Best," in which Pundik finally turns the tables to self-reflect a little. Instead of composing this song with the cheesy lines that litter the rest of the album ("You can steal my eyes, carve them out / I don't even need them" being one of them), it actually has some clever metaphors and serves more as a warning to the public about the dangers of a bad relationship.
Overall, the album is nothing pop-emo and pop-punk haven't seen before. Pundik may be less nasally, and the band may have returned slightly to its original sound from earlier records, but there's little room left for another album reiterating to us over and over again that boys rule and girls drool. With most of the band members pushing 30, it may be time for them to churn out albums about the woes of marriage and dirty diapers instead.
There comes a point where the listener might expect Pundik to stop everything and yell, "Boys have feelings, too, OK?!" Instead, he chooses to moan tacky and repetitive verses that express his hatred for the she-devil who broke his heart.
The album opens with the song "Right Where We Left Off," giving the listener an immediate sense of where this album is going, as Pundik yells about his fight with a girl. Generally, he's either figuring out that the girl he loves is a train wreck, desperately calling her dozens of times, or stuck in a relationship from hell with her. Either way, he makes her sound like a real piece of work.
One of the better songs on the album is "Heartless at Best," in which Pundik finally turns the tables to self-reflect a little. Instead of composing this song with the cheesy lines that litter the rest of the album ("You can steal my eyes, carve them out / I don't even need them" being one of them), it actually has some clever metaphors and serves more as a warning to the public about the dangers of a bad relationship.
Overall, the album is nothing pop-emo and pop-punk haven't seen before. Pundik may be less nasally, and the band may have returned slightly to its original sound from earlier records, but there's little room left for another album reiterating to us over and over again that boys rule and girls drool. With most of the band members pushing 30, it may be time for them to churn out albums about the woes of marriage and dirty diapers instead.
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teddy
posted 3/21/09 @ 4:08 PM EST
I guess that's a fair assessment, but I really dig the new album, and it's actually nice to see NFG just doing what they do best. Don't you wish Weezer and Green Day would do that for a change?
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