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Summary
The gloves are off and Not Without A Fight sees New Found Glory back with a vengeance. With Blink 182’s Mark Hoppus at the polishing desk the band’s seventh studio album (not including a debut EP, two cover albums and a greatest hits) proves the combination is no less than deadly.
It’s is a bittersweet blow equally of angst and sincerity where the five Floridian punks wear their hearts on their collective sleeves in true NFG form. Not Without A Fight picks up where 2004’s kick ass Catalyst left off, rather than follows up last year’s Tip Of The Iceberg, a hardcore experiment with guitarist Captain Straight Edge AKA Chad Gilbert at the helm. Even further removed from 2006’s slow-paced Coming Home, this new release is bursting with the classic NFG upbeat pop/punk formula. Packing a punch from the first to last track, Not Without A Fight proves exactly why NFG has survived for over a decade and can still fight back with a sting while many of its contemporaries have wilted and become a faded memory.
The regret a lot of blokes feel after realising they’ve fallen for an evil bitch that ruined their life is a reoccurring theme here; first single I Should Have Listened To My Friends is a nasty, but awesome example. Every bitter word that comes out of Jordan Pundik’s mouth sounds so sweet it makes you feel as if you’re floating on air, but with lyrics like "have you ever spoken a word of truth in your life?", "I should have never laid eyes on you" and "you’re wolf in sheepskin", the intent is clearly there. It makes one wonder how such anger and aggression can be churned into something so upbeat and sincere.
Like any NFG album, the themes of love and loss are something we can all relate to at some stage of our lives. There’s always a token mushy love song or two on a NFG record, so Reasons and Don’t Let This Be The End are those this album. Fingers crossed the highly addictive, pogo jumping Truck Stop Blues will be the next single – this ode to being apart from the one you love is hard to shake out of your head in a hurry.
Conclusion
Not Without A fight sucks you right in at the very first listen. It’s packed with killer hooks, lots of energy and lyrics that explode with emotion. Old school NFG fans will not be disappointed and younger punk rockers get ready to be converted.
Tracklisting
1. Right Where We Left Off
2. Don’t Let Her Pull You Down
3. Listen To Your Friends
4. 47
5. Truck Stop Blues
6. Tangled Up
7. I’ll Never Love Again
8. Reasons
9. Such A Mess
10. Heartless At Best
11. This Isn’t You
12. Don’t Let This Be The End
I registered just to add a comment to this. You seriously are a music journalist and you didn’t do enough research to find out the name of one of the people in your article?? I am referring to “Mike Hoppus” from blink 182, Its MARK HOPPUS, not only did you do your website disservice and take away from their credibility, but you quickly threw up a review with little to no research. Mark Hoppus is from one the biggest pop-alt bands of the 90’s and new millenium, and you couldn’t decipher between mark and mike?? NFG would state themselves that mark hoppus and crew (blink) are one of the main reason they are playing music today, and would laugh their asses off at you, and the fact that you consider yourself a journalist but can’t seem to figure out the bandmembers of one of the most popular multimillion selling bands of our time.
it was just a typo mate.
Hahahaha – how could you get so much sand in your vagina aboout Mike or Mark? “Mark Hoppus is from one the biggest pop-alt bands of the 90’s and new millenium”….Blink 182 is also one of the most over-rated band ever mate. So cool down and enjoy this album that “Mike Hoppus” produced. Its better than anything else he has been involved with. He sucks.
great album, fucking awesome even
Agreed. NFG are an epic band. Not one bad release I rekon. Few changes along the way, but still epic.
NFG always sounds better after you hear it live.
good band, good album
chadss eats ass
I held me nose and sang the other day. sounded just like NFG
Not punk.
hel yeah bitches was expecting sum easy core SYG FYS sounding tunes, but im not dissapointed 😀