New Found Glory – Not Without A Fight

New Found Glory - Not Without A Fight

This album title aptly sums up the last gig New Found Glory played in London where fights nearly broke out amongst the crowd. Playing last November, the band was playing purely to their devotees, having not released a studio album in two years.

So three years after Coming Home, the Californian band return with their sixth record, not counting the covers of famous movie songs in From the Screen to your Stereo Part II. Following their brief outing as the International Superheroes of Hardcore (parody with a slice of turn-the-dial-to-11 added), Not Without A Fight brings New Found Glory back to their roots of pop punk, with only a hint of hardcore chucked in. Filled with the typical array of power chords, catchy hooks and sing-out-loud choruses, the album packs a hefty punch or the expected.

There’s certainly no failure to live up to the sound that made their name. There aren’t any songs with the particular resonance of ‘My Friends Over You’ from their third album, Sticks and Stones, but six albums in you can’t really expect any band to come up with new classics too easily. Saying that, this 36-minute CD is packed with 12 tracks, with not a single one over four minutes long.

Produced by Mark Hoppus of Blink-182, they come bass heavy with a sort of seal of approval from one of pop-punk’s greatest alumni. Every track is a jab of melodious pop punk, and though none of them stand out hugely, they all have something going for them. Kicking off with ‘Right Where We Left Off’, lead singer Jordan Pundik launches into the mix of songs about girls and friends that has become the staple of previous album.

The loud blasts of ‘Don’t Let Her Pull You Down’ will undoubtedly have future crowds shouting at the stage as the track cycles between huge choruses and pulsing beats from the drums. ‘47’ demonstrates the lyrical standing of the album. Melodrama and tales of love lost and found permeate every track, with the chorus of this one summing up the teenage appeal: “I called 46 times, And you answered on the 47th”. ‘Tangled Up’ and ‘Heartless At Best’ are probably the best songs to be found on the album, checking all the boxes for vocals, guitars, drumming and lyrical content. Loud and fast is what New Found Glory have done best in the past and there’s little change in these departments.

Some may say it just the band playing it safe, but what’s wrong with sticking what they know and what the fans like? Not Without A Fight is defiantly pop-punk. Teeming with the sound that New Found Glory has become synonymous with, it’s in essence an album with their name written all over it. Fun, optimistic and with guitars, and you don’t even have to look at a dance routine in their videos.

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