Album Review: New Found Glory - 'Resurrection'

On Resurrection, New Found Glory have resurrected their past; theirs is an album that should be buried in the early 2000’s popular back catalogue of their youth along with Sticks and Stones, and Blink 182s Enema of the State. Instead, Resurrection finds an awkward footing in the download boxes of 2014’s teens, and while they might be convinced by the regurgitated tricks of an aging pop-punk band who are evidently in denial, older listeners, even those who still have a soft spot for the band who penned the soundtrack to their teenage angst, will find this one hard to swallow.

On ‘Selfless,’ New Found Glory have naught to offer but a handful of underwhelming lyrical acclamations ( ‘I can catch up on my sleep when I die,’ ) that are presumably intended to remind listeners that the band is still as youthful and energetic as they once were. As it turns out, the group is still writing songs to have a little bit of a whinge, which would be harmless were it not for the fact that the track offers nothing to listeners, sans a fairly well manufactured impression of songs that have already been written, albeit by the band themselves.

In fact, ‘On My Own’ could easily have been plucked, Back To The Future style, out of that era and into our own, without anyone having been any the wiser, were it not for the rude interruption provided by a brief verse of the kind of screamo-rap you might expect to encounter on a Dance Gavin Dance record. Sure, New Found Glory could be hinting at exploring new territory, or it could just be white noise, we may never know.

Title track, ‘Resurrection’ and ‘The Worst Person’ makes some nostalgic headway on the back of a lot of hefty pop punk melodies and a few brazen and enthusiastic chorus driven numbers, tried and true techniques that have served the band well over the course of their careers. Indeed, ‘Ready and Willing’ may provide a heady trip down memory lane for those 90s and 00’s kids who are all grown up, but for the rest of us, the lyrical ‘moment,’ fits much like a pair of tiny footy shorts on a fully grown man; just a little inappropriately.

By ‘Living Hell’ Resurrection seems pretty irredeemable, especially given that the aforementioned track, with its wince-inducing lyrics (‘If I can’t have you, I’ll make sure no one will’) might make more sense in the discography of bands whose members sport great hair and play a watered down version of what New Found Glory rocked in their heyday. Again, ‘Vicious Love’ feels tired and inauthentic, and even though, instrumentally everything is sound, there’s a space between the ferocity of the soaring guitar and the roller-coaster vocals that lacks an element of ‘oomph’.

Having said this, on ‘Persistent’ and more so on ‘Stories of a Different Kind’ the lyrical matter becomes more, for want of a better phrase, age-appropriate. This is where New Found Glory find an even footing, in singing about touring and discovering the world, and on ‘Degenerate’ about the pressures of being a guardian and passing on those hard –to-learn life lessons.

A wealth of experience garnered via the innards of a touring van, coupled with the things that the band has gone through as a group rising to fame at the turn of the 21st century, should provide New Found Glory with an endless source of writing material. Unfortunately, the band is still stuck in the mud of their youth, and as a result, Resurrection is uninspired and irrelevant.

1. Selfless

2. Resurrection

3. The Worst Person

4. Ready and Willing

5. One More Round

6. Vicious Love

7. Persistent

8. Stories of a Different Kind

9. Degenerate

10. Angel

11. Stubborn

12. Living Hell

13. On My Own