New Found Glory – Hits

Trends come and go and musical trends are no different. Depending on when you were first introduced to your particular scene of choice, the trend of that time will always be your favorite sound. When New Found Glory broke onto the scene just before the turn of the century with bands like Blink-182 and MXPX, people silently groaned “where are the bands like Jawbreaker or All?”. It seemed too poppy and easily accesible mall punk compared to what the “old” pop-punk fans were used to. Now, as bands like Red Jumpsuit Apparatus and Fall Out Boy make it big, we moan “why can’t they make music like New Found Glory and Blink-182 anymore?” It seems odd, but now we’re the “old” pop-punk fans yearning for the style of yore and just in time to cash in on that yearning sensation is a New Found Glory greatest hits compilation.

Now, just like all greatest hits compilations, Hits is definitely not for everyone. First to knock off the list of perspective buyers are those who never liked the band in the first place, Hits will not change their mind. Next off the list are the hardcore New Found Glory fans because while this compilation is a great reminder of why we love the band in the first place, you already have all the songs and the two unreleased cuts are not strong enough to warrant dropping down the cash for all of them.So really, the only category of pop-punk fans left are those who are just starting to get into the band. The fans who have heard a few songs or maybe only one cd and want a little review of the band’s career thus far. That is Hits main target market.

The question that remains is whether or not Hits does give an accurate representation of New Found Glory‘s career and for the most part it does. On top of the two previously mentioned unreleased tracks, Hits gives the listener ten other songs spanning the length of their career. It hits most of their singles from Hit Or Miss to Hold My Hand alongside All Downhill From Here and My Friend’s Over You. It essentially covers all their biggest singles with a few lesser known tracks like I Don’t Wanna Know and Understatement thrown in. Focusing mainly on their middle two releases – Sticks and Stones and Catalyst – they only have two songs from their more recent Coming Home (which is probably a good thing considering how that album turned out) and two from their self-titled effort; and just by that you know there’s a few flaring omissions here.

Most prominently is the fact that there are a total of four albums by New Found Glory that don’t make a single appearance on Hits. Yes, two of those releases were cover songs in the From The Screen To Your Stereo series but no New Found Glory history could ever be complete without mentioning those releases.Then there’s not a single song from Nothing Gold Can Stay or It’s All About The Girls and while latter omission can be forgiven the fact that there’s nothing from the former is just disgraceful. I mean, where’s 3rd And Long, You’ve Got A Friend In Pennsylvania or It Never Snows In Florida? All great songs and all are absent. A look at their later releases show that they’ve skipped over Better Off Dead, Boy Crazy, Something I Call Personality, and No News Is Good News too. They don’t need all of them, but a band like New Found Glory deserve a few more than just ten songs on a greatest hits CD and they could’ve easily put those songs on there.

Still, Hits is a good CD and I can’t deny that. It reminded me why I love New Found Glory and has filled me with a renewed sense of excitement for The Tip Of The Iceberg in April. The only downside is the unfortunate omissions of certain songs and the fact that old fans already have the songs.