Past Entertainment Articles.

Article for the week of 9/27/06

New Found Glory- Coming Home

By, Cozmic

New Found Glory is back with their fifth album. And to be perfectly honest, this is good news for me, as I was about to review ancient artillery games in 256 colours, being broke and not having anything recent to really write about. Yes, I am back to doing reviews after Dr. Doom kicked me out of Latveria, claiming I tried to kill the Penguin and claim the title for my own. I am not quite sure how that happened, as I haven't even been near the Penguin. My guess is Mysterio framed me. Either way, this article owes thanks to a friend of mine who plain kicks rear for helping me out, but he shall remain unnamed.

For those of you wanting me to get to the point, well, here goes.

New Found Glory probably able to call themselves veterans of the business now, after several rocking albums on Drive-Thru records. From the very garage-y pop punk “Nothing gold can Stay”, the band's sound has matured over the years, while still maintaining their roots in one way or the other.

Coming Home starts off with Oxygen, a relatively calm rock song that nevertheless works very well, although is it by far not the ideal intro. This is followed by “Hold my hand” a song that's about as sappy as it sounds (and also very, very poppy and catchy), but then again, the Beatles could get away with songs about Hand Holding back in the day, and have in fact inspired the lyrics on Coming home. This is where the probably most surprising element of the album comes in. Benmont Tench of The Heartbreakers recorded melodies for all songs on the piano. It adds a nice touch and another level to the whole song. The new single, “It's not your fault”, continues the trend, as do a few others.

All in all, it's a much softer and more straightforward New Found Glory we hear on coming home. The previous album, Catalyst, managed to produce some of the probably heaviest songs NFG has done, and showed more of a refined sound. Coming home follows this a bit, but is far less intense music wise. It is, however, compared to early NFG, also a lot more talented melodically. It might not be as fast, or as plain raw full of teen energy, but it is far more tight. The same goes for Pundik's vocals. Stefanie Reines of Drive-Thru said his voice has never sounded this good, and I am inclined to agree. It is, however, characteristically Jordan Pundik singing, make no mistake about that. And the words he sings are straightforward and from the heart. While it is not the best lyrics the band has done (Broken Sound off of Nothing gold can Stay might have that honour, being just dead on in it's simplicity). And no, the band hasn't sold out. The punk part is still there, even though it's not as obvious as one might have hoped.

The only song not about girls on the entire album, “When I die”, might also be the most powerful song on the album. The sound is massive (strings tend to do that..), the lyrics heartfelt as Chad Gilbert deals with his father's death, and Jordan's voice is probably at it's peak.
This is followed by “Connected”, the title meaning.. well, the chorus makes it obvious. This is another guitar-driven song, showing off just how well the band can be if they want.

The ending, on the American version at least, “Boulders”, is an epic feeling sort of ballad, and a definite example of the band throwing out everything they have. Strings, guitars and a choir all contribute to making it sound grand. The end result is absolutely fantastic and quite heart-rending.

All in all, I am not sure I can agree with some people about this being the best New Found Glory album yet, but I also have not heard it as much as I have the others. It is, however, a quite fantastic CD, now if only they had had more fast paced songs like the Japanese bonus track “Make it Right...”