New Found Glory – Not Without A Fight

This record can be looked at in two different ways. First, alongside Thursday‘s Common Existence, it could be the record that saves Epitaph Records and puts it back on the right track after some questionable releases the past few years. Or, if you wanted to look at it from New Found Glory‘s perspective, it could be the record to get the band back in gear after finally leaving the major label world.

In both cases, Not Without A Fight succeeds. The most important case however is, by far, the latter.

After a slightly dismal major label flop in Coming Home, the Floridian pop-punk kings returned to the label that launched them with From The Screen to Your Stereo Part 2 on Drive Thru Records. The cover album sounded more like a return to roots for the band and got people excited again. They then putNFG on the back burner and focused on their alter-egos The International Superheroes of Hardcore and released a split album with them. Sadly though, the NFG tracks on that record seemed flat compared to it’s counterpart.

But that’s not the case on Not Without A Fight. The change in labels and the release from their comical and hardcore side on ISHC seemed to have enabled New Found Glory to step back to their roots on Not Without A Fight without ignoring their progression as a band either.

The band has taken a step back and recorded an album seeped in their unique mixture of hardcore riffs and pop-punk vocals. Musically, it sounds like the bridge between New Found Glory and Sticks and Stones. Gone are the super slick riffs and piano ballads of Coming Home and back are the catchy hooks, heavy drumming and 2001 pop-punk melodies. Jordan Pudnik’s vocals are back and not as polished, creating that slightly nasally vibe that we’ve always loved. This record makes you feel as if you’re back at the turn of the century and it works for them.

Don’t Let Her Pull You Down pulls the listener in through a rousing gang vocal chorus of “DON’T! LET! HER! (pull you down)” and Listen To Your Friends is essentially the follow-up to Catalyst‘s My Friends Over You. Truck Stop Blues has one of the catchiest choruses on the record built on a staccato rhythm while I’ll Never Love Again sounds like a b-side from New Found Glory just with some occasional gang-vocals in the background; and Such A Mess is just a generally strong track. The band has written a record that makes you want to hear the songs live, tips their head to their older material but still contains a marked amount of growth and maturity, mainly in the musical complexity of the songs.

Not Without A Fight isn’t an instant classic and there are a few blips. You could fault them on still singing about love and relationships but that’s what we’ve come to expect; and they do it in a way that is light years beyond their current contemporaries. We’ve become accustomed with what a New Found Glory record should sound like and they’ve hit that sound on Not Without A Fight. Much better than Coming Home, it’s a record that will successfully reinvigorate everyone’s love for the band once again.